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Comment by hershel | Hacker News Reader

Does anybody have anidea what's the completion rates for students who paid(for certification/something else) ?

I don't recall if either identifies that information specifically, but there's a whole collection of browsable stats and collected papers here [1] and another paper here [2].

I expect any certificate related stats will change significantly in the near future there's as each MOOC seems to be de-emphasizing or getting rid of 'honor' certificates.

1: http://odl.mit.edu/insights/

2: http://www.rpajournal.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/SF2...

That's my perception as well. I've noticed some edX courses in particular pushing pretty hard on verified/paid certificates and eliminating the option of a free certificate. I can't say I'm especially surprised. MOOCs have struggled with their business models and having a free certificate option just further reduces the incentive for people to pay for a verified certificate. I notice that the upcoming Linux Foundation edX course, for example, only gives options to audit and to pay for a verified certificate.

The only numbers I've seen are from the Spring 2013 Gamification course. 68% of the signature track students earned a verified certificate. (That's not quite what you asked but it's probably the only meaningful way to measure completion.) Other statistics associated with the class were fairly typical of MOOCs so I assume that's a reasonable ballpark to assume for MOOCs generally.

I've done a few verified certs. There's a question of causality. I only get on the verified track after I'm relatively confident I'll finish the course. Those are the same courses I would have gotten an honor code in if verified wasn't available.

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