(Coursera engineer here) It's great to see thoughtful critiques like this.
Thankfully, we have a data analytics team now (3 out of our 17 engineers), and they are studying our retention statistics and the factors that affect it. They're also running A/B experiments to see what increases it and getting some interesting results.
We do see some big advantages of the timed model for learning, particularly in classes with peer-to-peer grading and evaluations, but there's obviously a big desire for the self-study mode, which is enabled for a few of our classes currently.
We're also introducing things like Signature Track, which some students sign up for just to encourage themselves to make it to the end (and it seems to work for many of them).
We'll keep experimenting to see what makes students both happy and successful. :-)
Thankfully, we have a data analytics team now (3 out of our 17 engineers), and they are studying our retention statistics and the factors that affect it. They're also running A/B experiments to see what increases it and getting some interesting results.
We do see some big advantages of the timed model for learning, particularly in classes with peer-to-peer grading and evaluations, but there's obviously a big desire for the self-study mode, which is enabled for a few of our classes currently.
We're also introducing things like Signature Track, which some students sign up for just to encourage themselves to make it to the end (and it seems to work for many of them).
We'll keep experimenting to see what makes students both happy and successful. :-)