MOOC as a way to get self-regulatory skills (I)

Why there is a high dropout rate in MOOC courses? Let us take for instance last spring 6.002x. Acording to statistics published by staff: "It had 154,763 registrants. Of these, 69,221 people looked at the first problem set, and 26,349 earned at least one point on it. 13,569 people looked at the midterm while it was still open, 10,547 people got at least one point on the midterm, and 9,318 people got a passing score on the midterm. 10,262 people looked at the final exam while it was still open, 8,240 people got at least one point on the final exam, and 5,800 people got a passing score on the final exam. Finally, after completing 14 weeks of study, 7,157 people have earned the first certificate awarded by MITx, proving that they successfully completed 6.002x."
 
Profesor Paul Kim from Stanford University has a very good answer to that question.  

Self-regulatory skills.

In one of his lectures, Paul Kim clearly explained: "One of the reasons why there is a high drop-out rate in unregulated learning environment such as online learning is because such learning requires much higher self-regulatory skills. Unlike face to face learning in fixed times and fixed environment, online learning often gives students ample freedom to set own schedules, learn at own pace, and most importantly at any convenient location without revealing much identity and in the absence of F2F social presence or direct peer observation or pressure. A slogan for one of for-profit universities was: convenience, convenience, convenience. Convenient location, convenient schedule, convenient pace…The freedom with convenience is great for those who can self-manage own resources and learning. Such freedom with convenience would be an ideal learning atmosphere and environment for those who can effectively prioritize tasks in short and long term timeframes."