# Post-Digital Learning for Rural Development: A Case Study of _Open Biotec_ MOOCs in Colombia
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Relationship between the MOOCs and the Development Strategy of Biotechnology in the Region
#### 3.4.1 Students' Participation in _Open Biotec_  
During the first year after the launch of the platform, the participation of the students enrolled in the different courses was monitored by collecting their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), as the number of students registered on the platform, number of sessions performed per user, and the average duration of each session. In this period, 918 students signed up for the platform, participating in an average of 10.86 sessions per user with an average duration of 48.7 min. The training route stipulates a duration of 24 h per course, for a total duration of 120 h. Table 5 states the distribution of the estimated duration of each learning activity in the _Open Biotec_ MOOCs. The average MOOCs dropout rate was estimated as 73.3% considering that students are free to take the _Open Biotec_ courses gradually, selecting a course order according to their interests. This dropout percentage is lower than the obtained in several MOOCs which is greater than 90%. In 2019, a study performed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed that over the past five years, online courses recorded an average dropout rate of about 96% [93]. The student's participation in the tests and forums adds up to 4 h (16%), while the development of the training activity (Scorm Package) is about 5 h (21%). The Practical Work totals 15 h due to it includes several experimental activities with biological processes; these activities are not reflected in the KPIs collected on the platform due to it represents autonomous activities for the students. For the paper, the progress of student participation in the Agricultural Residues MOOC was determined. It was the selected course to be analyzed because it was the first MOOC students finished on the platform. Figure 4 shows the percentile distribution of the students' progress during the course in terms of their participation in the different learning activities of the educational material. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Learning Activity** & **Hours** & **Percentage (\%)** \\ \hline Question Forum & 1 & 4 \\ Discussion Forum & 1 & 4 \\ Practical Work & 15 & 63 \\ Knowledge Test & 1 & 4 \\ Diagnostic Test & 1 & 4 \\ Scorm Package & 5 & 21 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Distribution of the estimated duration for the different learning activities on the _Open Biotec_ MOOCs. The percentile distribution graph is a graphical representation of how data values are distributed across a range of percentiles. Percentiles divide a dataset into 100 equal parts, with each part representing 1% of the data. In this percentile distribution graph, the \(x\)-axis represents the range of percentiles from 0 to 100, and the \(y\)-axis represents the percentage of students' progress. Figure 4 allows to quickly see how the data is distributed, including the minimum and maximum values, the mean, and any outliers or concentrations of data. The students presented average progress of 49.4% in the employ of the educational material. 50% of them carried out more than three learning activities and 10% of users with progress above 83%. Only 10% were below 16%, with only one completed activity. On the other hand, Figure 5 shows the percentage of student participation in the different activities offered by the Agricultural Residues MOOC. More than 90% of the students who participated in the course evaluated their prior knowledge in topics related to biotechnology, renewable energy, and bio-entrepreneurship or renewable materials of biological origin. In turn, 93% of the students participated in the training activity (Scorm Package) related to the Agricultural Residues course. The concept of biomass is deeply studied, its  
Figure 4: Percentage of students’ progress in the educational material for the Agricultural Residues MOOC. Figure 5: Student participation (%) in the different activities offered by the Agricultural Residues MOOC.