The Understanding the Effectiveness of Email Prompts to Online Asynchronous Course Participants

Authors

  • Eshana Ranasinghe University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
  • Dilini Thoradeniya University of Moratuwa
  • Vishaka Nanayakkara University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
  • Gaindu Saranga Jayathilaka University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7886-2952
  • Malik Ranasinghe University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34190/ecel.23.1.2752

Keywords:

online asynchronous learning, e-mail prompts, user retention, online course, Course completion

Abstract

A persistent problem in asynchronous online courses is low user retention. Compared to conventional courses, participants require some form of reward or intrinsic motivation to complete these courses which do not have set deadlines or timetables. To remedy this, many online course platforms will send email reminders to participants registered in the course to prompt them to continue their participation. This study is focused on understanding the efficacy of such practices in motivating students to continue a course they would otherwise neglect or drop. This study focuses on selected courses on the online asynchronous learning platform open.uom.lk. The participants of an online asynchronous Project Management course who had enrolled but not completed the course were separated into two groups; students who enrolled but have not started the course and students who started the course but have stopped for over a month. The students of each group were divided into test and control groups, where the test group was sent prompts by email to continue the course which included a link to the course page Using user activity data from the platform the progress of students over the month prompts were sent, and the month after were analysed, and the efficacy of sending email prompts was calculated. 4.45% of the students from the test group began participating in the course again as compared to 2% of the students in the test group. 32 students (0.7%) completed the course in the weeks during and after the email prompts were sent while none of the students in the control group completed the course. This shows sending email prompts has a positive impact on increasing participation in the course.

Author Biographies

Eshana Ranasinghe, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Eshana Ranasinghe is a Junior Quality Assurance Consultant at Centre for Open and Distance Learning of the University of Moratuwa. She received a MSc in Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Moratuwa and a MChem in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield.

Dilini Thoradeniya, University of Moratuwa

Dr. Dilini Thoradeniya is a Senior Consultant at the Centre for Open and Distance Learning (CODL), University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, where she utilizes her academic and project management background to coordinate the development and implementation of the CODL’s latest initiative: the “Project Management Programme” to be delivered online in asynchronous mode.

Vishaka Nanayakkara, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Ms. Vishaka Nanayakkara is the Director of the Centre for Open and Distance Learning, and a Senior Lecturer at University of Moratuwa teaching in the fields of Computer, Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Her Research interests are Technology-based teaching, learning. She received her Technical Licentiate from the Department of Computer Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology and BSc. in Engineering from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Moratuwa.

Gaindu Saranga Jayathilaka, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Gaindu Saranga Jayathilaka is an engineer registered under the associate membership of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka. He obtained his Bachelor of Science Engineering (Hons.) degree (in Civil Engineering) from the University of Moratuwa in 2020. He has registered for a Master of Philosophy degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Moratuwa and completed it in November 2022.

Malik Ranasinghe, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Prof. Malik Ranasinghe is the Chairman Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka and a Senior Lecturer at University of Moratuwa. Prof. Ranasinghe graduated in Civil Engineering from the UoM (1984), and obtained his MSc (1986) and PhD (1990) from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada in Civil Engineering Economics as a Canadian Commonwealth Scholar.

Downloads

Published

2024-10-23

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 1 (2024): Proceedings of the 23rd European Conference on e-Learning - ECEL 2024

Section

Academic papers