Of all the active participants in the past twelve months, more than half have successfully earned a certificate upon completion of a course. The openHPI team considers active users as those registered participants who do the homework and take part in discussion forums. Every third participant is a member of this group. Meinel reports that "if the total number of those who signed up for our courses is taken into account, then we see an average of seventeen percent earning a certificate at the end of a course." American providers, on the other hand, report their course completion rate to be in the single digit percentage range, said the HPI director.

The openHPI team recorded an average of 2,900 discussion posts per course. "These discussions are in a sense the heart of our courses and make them a unique learning experience," said Meinel. Parallel to the high activity of openHPI users is the low dropout rate. About 75 percent of those who submit homework in the first week of the six-week course remain active members up to the final exam. Meanwhile, there are openHPI users on every continent and in 114 countries around the world.