"Approximately three-quarters of those who inquired about the course were brand new to Syracuse University, according to Peggy Brown, iSchool director of instructional design and an adjunct instructor.

Brown provided these enrollment, completion rate, and student outcome results:

1,731 students were invited to participate in the course

856 students (just under 50%) officially accepted that invitation

Only 17 of that number formally dropped out
Of the 839 participating:

429 were actively engaged from start to finish (a rate of 51.7% of the official total participants)
410 others viewed and accessed course material intermittently
91 students (as of early April) are receiving certificates for completing all course requirements. (That is 21.2% of the 429 actively engaged students and 10.8% of the 839 who signed up).
“We’re very pleased with this result. This is slightly higher than what some other MOOCs have experienced. But beyond the numbers, the students in the course had some very rich and exciting conversations,” noted Professor and Senior Associate Dean Jeffrey Stanton.
The class demographics also showed these characteristics:

Location: Two-thirds of the students originated from North America; the next largest category (8%) were from South Asia
Language: For two-thirds, English is the primary/first language
Age ranges(of those responding): 15-24 (57 students); 25-34 (114); 35-44 (94); 45-54 (53); 55-64 (21)
Gender: 51%/49% female to male
Course objective: professional development (61%)
Participation: 47% intended to be active contributors
About three-quarters of those attracted to the class were all-new to SU
Of those SU-affiliated: Current students (15); Alumni (19); Admitted students (20); Applicants to SU (22); Faculty/Staff (9).
The class used the free open-source e-book authored by Stanton (“An Introduction to Data Science”) as a guide, and also examined the R statistical analysis and visualization system. Taught by Stanton in conjunction with iSchool adjunct instructor Gary Krudys,the course also incorporated the iSchool’s distinct perspective towards data science, which provides a full data lifecycle view that goes beyond what most discuss as data analytics, according to program manager Erin Bartolo."