Part
01
of one
Part
01
Best completion rates of online coding programs
Thank you for your question about completion rates of online coding programs. The short version is that there are significant variations depending on the type of program. Free courses have the lowest completion rates, while many paid programs bill on a monthly basis and don't necessarily require completion. Online bootcamps have the highest completion rates, with Flatiron topping the list at 99%, but they are also the most demanding courses in terms of cost and time investment, and the most rewarding in terms of job placement. The complexity and the different factors that go into each online coding course - length, and how completion is measured, makes it difficult to compile the best courses by completion rate, however, I have compiled a list of some of the top MOOC courses, coding schools, and bootcamps, by completion rate, below.
In terms of what determines high completion rates - after reading a range of MOOC industry reports, and analysis by the schools themselves, there was little information on program design. Rather, it seemed that cost, expectation, and course duration had more of an impact on graduation rates.
ISSUES WITH TALKING ABOUT COMPLETION RATES
-Comparing the completion rate of different courses and schools can be difficult, given the differing length of courses and no agreed on MOOC metrics or criteria for completion. Analysts have noted 13 different criteria being used to measure completion, though of course the most common one is obtaining a certificate- for those courses that provide one. Other metrics include, "active students" (those who start the first class), persistent learners who engage with all course content, and so on.
-Many courses, for example the Flatiron Community Powered Bootcamp - part of Free Code Camp - are paid for on a monthly basis ($149 in this case), and the idea for many students is to do it as long as they need to. Typically ranked number one, Code School charges $29 / month.
-Often the data available on completion rates is by schools rather than subject area or program. For example, this article lists the top 30 online universities or schools by graduation rate.
OVERVIEW: CODING/PROGRAMMING COMPLETION RATES
-Only 5% of people who sign up for an online course complete it, and that figure doubles to 10% for courses that aren't free (the source seems to be just referring to online tech courses, but it isn't totally clear)
-Tech boot camps though have a much higher completion rate of 90% . They often require some physical presence and tend to cost up to $36,000. Boot camps also claim to have a 100% placement rate afterwards.
-A 2015 study found that student enrolment rates in online computing courses are four times higher than for humanities, however, the completion rate for technology based courses was just 6%, half that of humanities type courses.
COURSE COMPLETION RATES
Jordon is the one database compiling online course completion rates, and it is the one that industry reports from 2016 are still referring to. However, it references particular courses done in particular years -rather than all courses and averages over time, and many of these date back to 2013 and 2012. Finally, Jordon includes many MOOC platforms, but not all of them. In terms of coding schools- it includes Udacity and Udemy (just one course each) but not Khan or Code School. After filtering the database by platform, I combed through all of their courses, searching for those related to coding and programming (bypassing other tech courses like Internet security), and have listed them, by completion rate, here:
-27.4% - Spielend Programmieren Lernen (Learning play-programming) Hasso-Plattner-Institut course at OpenHPI, 2014 for 4 weeks. 2516 completed out of a total of 9195 students
-26.4% - MongoDB for DBAs at 10gen, 2013 for 7 weeks. 1701 completed out of a total of 6440 students enrolled
-21.2% - MongoDB for develops at 10Gen, 2013 for 7 weeks. 1405 students completed the course out of 6627
-19.2% - Functional Programming Principles in ScalaT at Coursera, 2012 for 7 weeks. 9593 completed the course out of 50,000 students enrolled
-14.3% Parallel Programming Concepts, Hasso-Plattner-Institut at OpenHPI, 2014 for 8 weeks. 1118 completed out of a total of 7816 students enrolled
-12.5 % Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Stanford University course at Udacity, 2011 for 10 weeks. 20,000 completed the course out of a total of 160,000 students enrolled
-6.2% - Learn to Program - Crafting Quality Code, University of Toronto at Coursera, 2013 for 5 weeks. 3352 completed out of a total of 53974 students enrolled
-5.4% - Begin Programming: Build Your First Mobile Game- Futurelearn, duration and year unknown, 544 completed the course out of a total of 10080 students enrolled
-2.8% - Creative Programming for Digital Media and Mobile Apps, a Goldsmiths College course at Coursera, 2013. 2231 completed the course out of a total of 78600
GRADUATION RATES- PAID CODING SCHOOLS
I then searched graduation rates individually, for the top coding schools. As most of them are self-teaching style, where students can work at whatever pace they like, the issue was more often about time to complete, than completion rates. I came up with the following, limited results:
Khan Academy: The school states that its completion rates for its first coding challenge are 86% (86.2% for males and 86.7% for males). However, that isn't the same as finishing a full program.
Udacity: For this school the issue isn't so much completion rates, but how long students are taking to get through courses. It's Nanodegree takes 6 to 12 months, at $200 per month. Prior to 2014, when it launched more technical courses, Udacity had a completion rate of just 10%, with not all of those people passing. The new Nanodegree, a joint project with Google, has a completion rate of 92%, according to the company's CEO.
Udemy: An Udemy user claims the company has a "binge learning model" (see below under "Aspects of coding courses..") and in 2012 its completion rate was just 10%. More recent stats from last year have Udemy's completion rate at 20% (dropout rate of 80%).
I found no public data for Code School, Skillcrush, Code Avengers or Tuts+.
ONLINE BOOTCAMP GRADUATION RATES
As I mentioned, graduation rates at these types of courses are particularly high, given their cost and their intensity, as well as the typical reward of employment afterwards. Here are graduation rates of the top online bootcamp courses, according to Coursereport.
-Software Guild web and mobile boot camp: 92% (includes their immersive in person course, and their online bootcamp)
Other schools offering online boot camps include Bloc, The Data Incubator, General Assembly, The Tech Academy - but there was no public data on their graduation rates available.
ASPECTS OF CODING COURSES THAT LEADS TO HIGH COMPLETION RATE
Not surprisingly, most coding programs come with incredible design and UX. Course structure would have more impact, but unfortunately there was no public data on what course structures prevented high drop out rates.
One user of Udemy analysed that the program's design convinced him to continuously enrol in new courses, but it didn't have the ability to help him follow through with his learning objectives. "Udemy makes the ability for one to enroll in courses as easy as clicking two buttons — first to pop-up a purchase window and a second time to send in the purchase order," he wrote. In terms of getting users to return, Udemy tracks course completion, with a progress bar.
WHAT LEADS TO HIGH COMPLETION RATES -GENERALLY
-Online courses that have a higher completion rate involve more commitment: they cost more. Hence tech boot camps tend to have a higher completion rate
-Alternatively, low completion rates for MOOC generally can be attributed to a lack of incentive to finish: unlike traditional universities, non completion has no impact on credit or other courses, and of course many MOOC are free. Further, many students can learn what they need from aspects of the course, then stop, and the enrolment process is much more straight forward than with a physical university.
-Further, analysts question the credibility of courses that can be finished "in 24 hours" (often). However, as fees become more standardised, the State of the MOOC report, 2016, expects retention to grow.
-More reasons for dropout include lack of time, course difficulty, lack of learning skills, and unrealistic expectations.
-This Forbes writer, discussing completion rates of Free Code Camp, argues however that a low completion rate isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it means people are trying out courses.
CONCLUSION
Udacity's Nanodegree, and Flatiron's bootcamp have some of the highest completion rates for coding programs, though the Nanodegree tends to take much longer. Thanks for using Wonder! Please get in touch with us if we can help with anything else.