On Line Courses: Some Statistics

Not long ago, I took the on-line course titled "Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation" given by Mr. Umesh Vazirani. The course is offered by Coursera which hosts a large selection of courses. The course site and the way the courses run is worthy of a separate posting. For now, let me share some statistics that Mr. Vazirani sent students at the end of the class.

Some of you have asked about course statistics, which we are glad to share with you:

• # of people signed up for the course: 26K
• # of people that watched the first lecture: 12K
• # of people who turned in the first assignment: 6K
• # of people who turned in the fourth assignment (midpoint): 3K
• # of people who took the final: 2104
• # of certificates: 1523
• # of certificates with distinction: 373

So, you can see that about 26,000 people signed up for the class; I was one of them. Yet the attrition was tremendous. Half the people who signed up even watched the first lecture. Then half of that turned in the first assignments, and the numbers keep dropping.

The original numbers are, I think, misleading. The fact is that over 1500 people completed the class and almost 400 did so with distinction. That means that this free course, in a subject that is not for everybody, reached over 1500 people who benefited from Mr.Vazirani's lectures and efforts.

That's remarkable.