Context. SE is a growing field in both academia and industry, online SE education becomes more and more prevalent recent years. Massive Open Online Courses, as an emerging type of open educational resource, provide SE courses a much wider development space. But on the other hand, MOOCs limit SE courses because its low completion rate. Game elements are used to address this issue, but the impact of game elements on completion rate of specific MOOCs and SE courses in MOOCs are not clear. It is necessary to find whether and how game elements could help students finish SE courses. Explore the method and idea of improving SE courses in MOOCs through game elements. Objectives. In this study authors investigate what game elements are applied in SE courses in MOOCs platforms, evaluate the impact of MOOCs game elements on SE courses completion situation. Based on the analysis and summary of the data and result, propose suggestion to improve SE courses. Methods. Authors conduct a systematic literature to find the game elements used in SE courses in MOOCs. Conducting the survey to get the data of the MOOCs game elements on completion situation in general and data of survey is analyzed by mathematical statistics. The interview is used to find how the game elements of MOOC and SE education simulation impact on learning SE courses on MOOCs by inductive content analysis. Results. In systematic literature review, 23 studies are selected from 358 papers of six databases. Forty-one responses of questionnaires are received and twenty interviewees take part in this study. Authors find that game elements have been applied in MOOCs in various ways and research results about effort of game elements are positive. In this study, the results of analyzing the received data in survey show that there is no significant impact of game elements on course completion rate. The interview shows that specific game element is necessary for students finishing their courses and some game elements are not well designed in students’ perspective. Two specific suggestions to improve SE courses are proposed according to survey and interview result. Conclusions. This research collects data through SLR, survey and interview, and evaluates the impact of game elements on SE course completion situation through analysis, comparison and summary. The result is helpful to people who design and develop the game elements in MOOCs platform. Focusing on the character of SE education and SE courses, some suggestion of designing and modifying the game elements are provided. This enables the game elements designer to target designing and arranging game elements better.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The study explores the completion rates (the number of years a student takes to complete a degree) of graduates at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. The graduates in the study all did at least one semester of statistics in their final year of study. The students' completion will be described with respect to school results and socio-demographics. Differences between students who finished their studies in the prescribed time of three years and those who took longer than the prescribed time will be highlighted. Factors that aid or hinder students from successfully completing their studies in the prescribed time will be analyzed. An entry selection model will be developed to screen the students. This will assist with an enrolment strategy. The most significant result found was that the political environment played the most significant role in throughput. The next significant result from the study showed that the grade 12 aggregate played a significant role in throughput. It is suggested that UWC be proactive in developing alternative methods of selecting students, since the new Further Education Training (FET) school system, which will be implemented in 2006, will omit the grade 12 aggregate.

Previous research has studied game achievement with focus on their forming elements, the taxonomic method based on design perspective, studying the relationship between their completion rate with factors including their name and average play time. This research focuses on creating a new taxonomic method on game achievements based on how they get triggered and using it to study the relationship between their completion rate and other factors with the help of data analysis. The result shows that game achievements reflect good intra-group consistency and inter-group differences after classification. And the analysis on their completion rate reveals that game achievement completion rates are correlated with game companies, platforms, their triggers, and player preferences.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-03-22T14:38:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tadeulucenadasilva.pdf: 1864972 bytes, checksum: 2b49c8b8e9c16fa97372846678d8c966 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-04-24T02:24:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 tadeulucenadasilva.pdf: 1864972 bytes, checksum: 2b49c8b8e9c16fa97372846678d8c966 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-24T02:24:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tadeulucenadasilva.pdf: 1864972 bytes, checksum: 2b49c8b8e9c16fa97372846678d8c966 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-14 / A Rede Federal de Educação Profissional e Tecnológica (RFEPT) recebe milhares de matrículas todos os anos. Contudo, pouco menos de 40% dos alunos dos cursos técnicos conseguem concluir o curso escolhido, de acordo com dados do Sistema Nacional de Informações da Educação Profissional e Tecnológica (Sistec). Essa baixa Taxa de Conclusão (TC) é explicada, na RFEPT, devido à alta Taxa de Evasão e de Retenção de alguns cursos técnicos. As evasões e as retenções têm várias causas, que podem ser externas e internas. A revisão bibliográfica demonstrou que os fatores externos são de natureza socioeconômica e os internos, de ordem pedagógica. As análises estatísticas ajudaram a identificar as regiões e Institutos com problemas nessas taxas, demonstrando uma correlação negativa entre a Taxa de Conclusão e a renda per capita, bem como entre Taxa de Conclusão e o Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano (IDH), ou seja, quanto maior a Taxa de Conclusão, menor a renda per capita e o IDH do município. No desenvolvimento deste estudo, realizado na Secretaria de Educação Profissional e Tecnológica (Setec), foram identificados os cursos com baixa Taxa de Conclusão e os fatores que possam ter influenciado tal dado. Por meio dessas informações, apresentou-se um projeto de intervenção, com as medidas a serem implementadas pela Setec e pelos Institutos, visando solucionar as principais causas da evasão e da retenção. Este projeto, denominado Plano de Ações Integradas de Combate à Evasão e Reprovação (Paicer), será regulamentado por uma portaria, composto de ações a) preventivas; b) de monitoramento, para detectar precocemente os alunos em risco de evasão ou retenção e identificar o motivo desses episódios; c) corretivas, com o convite aos alunos evadidos para retornar ou a manter-se no Instituto aqueles com risco de evasão. Com essas ações, será possível o aumento paulatino da Taxa de Conclusão, podendo chegar a 80% em sete anos. / The Federal Network for Professional Education and Technology (RFEPT) receives thousands of files every year. However, fewer than 40% of students in technical courses can complete the course chosen, according to data from the National System of Technological Education (Sistec). This low completion rate (TC) is explained in RFEPT, due to high rate of evasion and Retention some technical courses. The dropouts and retentions have several causes, which can be external and internal. The literature review showed that external factors are socioeconomic in nature and internal pedagogical order. Statistical analysis helped identify regions and Institutes with problems in these rates, showing a negative correlation between completion rate and per capita income, as well as between completion rate and the Human Development Index (HDI), in others words, the higher the Completion Rate, lowest income per capita and the HDI of the municipality. In developing this study, conducted in the Department of Professional and Technical Education (Setec) identified courses with low completion rate and factors that may have influenced this data. Through this information, presented an intervention project with the measures to be implemented by Setec and the Institutes, aiming at solving the main causes of dropout and retention. This project, called the Integrated Action Plan to Combat Evasion and Failure (Paicer), will be regulated by an ordinance, consisting of actions a) prevention, b) monitoring for early detection of students at risk of dropout or retention and to identify the reason these episodes c) corrective, with the invitation to dropout students to return or remain at the Institute those with risk avoidance. With these actions, it is possible the gradual increase in the completion rate, reaching 80% in seven years.

Non-response is an error common to most surveys. In this dissertation, the error of non-response is described in terms of its sources and its contribution to the Mean Square Error of survey estimates. Various response and completion rates are defined. Techniques are examined that can be used to identify the extent of nonresponse bias in surveys. Methods to identify auxiliary variables for use in nonresponse adjustment procedures are described. Strategies for dealing with nonresponse are classified into two types, namely preventive strategies and post hoc adjustments of data. Preventive strategies discussed include the use of call-backs and follow-ups and the selection of a probability sub-sample of non-respondents for intensive follow-ups. Post hoc adjustments discussed include population and sample weighting adjustments and raking ratio estimation to compensate for unit non-response as well as various imputation methods to compensate for item non-response. / Mathematical Sciences / M. Com. (Statistics)

Non-response is an error common to most surveys. In this dissertation, the error of non-response is described in terms of its sources and its contribution to the Mean Square Error of survey estimates. Various response and completion rates are defined. Techniques are examined that can be used to identify the extent of nonresponse bias in surveys. Methods to identify auxiliary variables for use in nonresponse adjustment procedures are described. Strategies for dealing with nonresponse are classified into two types, namely preventive strategies and post hoc adjustments of data. Preventive strategies discussed include the use of call-backs and follow-ups and the selection of a probability sub-sample of non-respondents for intensive follow-ups. Post hoc adjustments discussed include population and sample weighting adjustments and raking ratio estimation to compensate for unit non-response as well as various imputation methods to compensate for item non-response. / Mathematical Sciences / M. Com. (Statistics)