More Progress, Less Attrition: The Role of User-Generated Content in Online Education

Abstract

Content platforms routinely face the challenge of managing user engagement and attrition. We study how engagement with user-generated content (UGC) in discussion forums affects both engagement with core content and user retention, using data from Coursera, a popular online education platform. We develop a measure of UGC relevance and use exogenous variation in forum content to identify the causal effect of UGC engagement on user behavior. Our analysis reveals that increased UGC engagement leads to a 33.93% decrease in time spent on the current module's course material. Importantly however, this reduction in engagement reflects more efficient learning rather than diminished user interest. We find that UGC engagement facilitates course progress, increases engagement with subsequent modules, and reduces the likelihood of attrition. A relevance-based UGC ranking policy results in a 16.80% improvement in overall course retention compared to the existing recency-based policy. Our findings demonstrate that in online education, reduced engagement with current content can paradoxically indicate improved learning outcomes when it stems from effective use of supplementary resources like UGC. These insights challenge simplistic interpretations of engagement metrics and can inform strategies for online platforms seeking to enhance user experience and retention through optimized content design and UGC management. 

Keywords: Customer Retention, Online Education, User Engagement, User-Generated Content, Instrumental Variables

JEL Classification: M31, I21, D12, C55