This protocol is prepared according to the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) guidelines and will be reported according to the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines. The selection process of the studies will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis- Protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015.
Eligibility Criteria of Primary Studies:
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Type of the study: This systematic review will include prospective and retrospective observational studies that evaluate the frequency of leaving MOOCs throughout the world. Studies should contain the frequency (%) of the people who left courses. No restriction on sample size and language will be applied for primary studies.
Type of participants: All students who have participated in a MOOC, with ages equal or above 18 years (adult), in either gender, in all geographical regions, and with all job types, will be included in this study.
Search strategy and literature sources
Search strategy components
We will search MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics), Embase (Embase.com), ASSIA, CINAHL, Education Research, BEI, Eric for the period from 01.01.2000 to 30.04.2020. To perform the most inclusive search, the search components include the dropout rate and MOOCs, as shown in Table 1.
Other methods used to find relevant studies are manual search of gray literature (thesis, conference papers, and organizational reports) and contacting experts to obtain information on their relevant unpublished studies and related conferences.
Search of relevant Internet resources
To access more data, we will conduct a search of Class Central (http://classcentral.com).
Time interval of search
All studies conducted between the 1st of January 2000 and 30th of March 2020, will be included.
Screening and Selection
Upon completion of the search process, two of the authors (ARS and MM) will review the titles and abstracts of the studies according to the inclusion and exclusion requirements at the screening level, and will identify and pick the appropriate studies. Studies with sufficient data in one or more aspects of the inclusion criteria will be included and, in the subsequent stage, a final decision will be made according to their full text.
Eventually, in the next step, two of the authors (ARS and AAK) will independently review the full text of the selected studies to determine the final included studies.
Discordances in any step of the process will be resolved by consensus, and if the disagreement is not resolved, the opinion of a third expert will be used to resolve the case.
Assessment of the risk of bias in included studies
Two of the authors (ARS & MM) will independently use the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for observational studies (for cross-sectional, retrospective, and cohort studies) to assess the quality of final included studies. This scale has eight items covering aspects of selection, comparability, and outcome of the studies.
Data extraction
For the final included studies, two of the authors (ARS and MM) will independently extract the following summary data: first author’s name, study design, country, sample size, demographic variables of the participants, year of publication, type of the university, participants’ jobs, level of the online course, duration of the MOOCs, and MOOC dropout rate (%) and its causes.
Statistical analysis
Pooled analysis
The pooled frequency (%) of MOOC dropout will be calculated in the process of meta-analysis. The combination method will be based on methodological similarities of the included studies by the fixed effects model or random effects model. Forest plots will be made for all studies to show the separate and pooled frequencies and their corresponding 95% CIs. Stata V.13.1 (Stata Corp) software will be used in the present study. If meta-analysis is not possible due to severe methodological heterogeneity, a narrative qualitative discussion, based on findings from individual studies, will be presented.
Assessment of heterogeneity
The Q-statistic test and I2 statistic and their corresponding 95% CIs will be used to assess the statistical heterogeneity of the frequency values in the included studies. The degree of heterogeneity will be determined according to the Cochrane Handbook (26). The level of statistical significance for the Q-test will be set at p< 0.05.
Subgroup analysis
Subgroup analysis or meta-regression, if sufficient data are available, will be used as appropriate to investigate the effect of statistical heterogeneity. In this study, variables such as age, sex, and duration, types, and degree levels of courses will be used in subgroup analysis.
Sensitivity analysis
The leave-one-out method will be used for sensitivity analysis. If one of the combinations (K-1) of the studies shows a result different from those of the others, we will carefully consider the features of the studies involved.
Assessment of publication bias
If there are at least ten studies in the final selection, the funnel plot and Begg’s and Egger’s statistical tests will be used to evaluate publication bias.
Table 1: Search Syntax for Scopus
Search syntax in Scopus
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Search round
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Search syntax
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NNR
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Output No.
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1 and final
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((ALL(Dropout) AND ALL(Student)) OR (ALL(Dropouts) AND ALL(Student)) OR ALL(“Student Dropout”) OR ALL(“School Dropouts”) OR (ALL(Dropout) AND ALL(School)) OR (ALL(Dropouts) AND ALL(School)) OR ALL(“School Dropout”) OR (ALL(Dropouts) AND ALL(Education)) OR ALL(“education drop out”) OR ALL(“education dropout”) OR ALL(“school drop out”) OR ALL(“school drop outs”) OR ALL(“student drop out”) OR ALL(“student drop outs”) OR ALL(“student dropouts”) OR ALL(“completion rate”) OR ALL(“completion rates”) OR ALL(“dropout rate”) OR ALL(“drop out rate”) OR ALL(“drop out rates”) OR ALL(“dropout rates”) OR ALL(“Participant engagement”) OR ALL(“learner engagement”) OR ALL(“course engagement”) OR ALL(“student engagement”) OR ALL(“attrition rate”) OR ALL(“attrition rates”) OR ALL(“learner participation”) OR ALL(“course participation”) OR ALL(“student participation”) OR ALL(“non completion rate”) OR ALL(“non completion rates”) OR ALL(“educational status”) OR ALL(Dropout*) OR ALL(“student withdraw”) OR ALL(“learner withdraw”) OR ALL(“course withdraw”) OR ALL(“participant withdraw”) OR ALL(“student abandon”) OR ALL(“learner abandon”) OR ALL(“course abandon”) OR ALL(“participant abandon”) OR ALL(“student discontinue”) OR ALL(“learner discontinue”) OR ALL(“course discontinue”) OR ALL(“participant discontinue”) OR ALL(“student leave”) OR ALL(“learner leave”) OR ALL(“course leave”) OR ALL(“participant leave”) OR ALL(“student quit”) OR ALL(“learner quit”) OR ALL(“course quit”) OR ALL(“participant quit”) OR ALL(“student achievement”) OR ALL(“learner achievement”) OR ALL(“course achievement”) OR ALL(“participant achievement”) OR ALL(“student competence”) OR ALL(“learner competence”) OR ALL(“participant competence”) OR ALL(“course competence”) OR ALL(“student performance”) OR ALL(“learner performance”) OR ALL(“course performance”) OR ALL(“participant performance”) OR ALL(“student progression”) OR ALL(“learner progression”) OR ALL(“course progression”) OR ALL(“participant progression”) OR ALL(“retention rate”) OR ALL(Dropout*) OR ALL(Withdraw*) OR ALL(abandon) OR ALL(discontinue) OR ALL(leave) OR ALL(quit) OR ALL(achievement*) OR ALL(competence*) OR ALL(perform*) OR ALL(progress*)) AND (ALL(MOOCs) OR ALL(“Massive Open Online Courses”) OR ALL(MOOC)) AND PUBYEAR AFT 2000
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Page NO.= 20
NNR=11
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11738
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