Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) gained prominence as an alternative teaching and learning platform for many educators embarking on developing university courses online. In Malaysia, the initiative at lower secondary school was quite recent and not many teachers were willing to invest the time and effort to develop the MOOC courses. This study examined the secondary school gifted students' experience in learning a language subject using a new online course in a MOOC platform. All students from the lower secondary levels of a gifted education institution enrolled in the English subject MOOC and their engagements and experiences were recorded in their journal and classroom discussions. Their text and verbal responses were analysed and reported to better understand the various issues and challenges that they had encountered. Students accredited certain positive aspects of MOOC and they found it to be useful, flexible and engaging. More than 80 per cent relished the social meeting elements such as like, comment and share. The contents and activities helped them learn and practise the English language. The study outcomes disclosed the use of MOOC as a social learning platform that offers engaging learning. The online teaching and learning process could benefit from the social media features found in MOOC which are motivating to the gifted students. For educators, this platform offers useful alternatives and strategies to develop their teaching contents online and utilise it as an enrichment programme in the gifted and talented education institution.

This study covers the need to prepare suitable activities for the language enrichment programme for the gifted students. MOOC as a social learning platform for students at the lower secondary is a new approach for the gifted students as they could enrol and go through them at their own pace. This study discovers whether the gifted students could benefit from the language enrichment programme using this social learning platform. An online questionnaire was distributed to all Foundation 1, 2 and 3 students of Kolej GENIUS Insan who participated in the pilot programme developed by Open Learning Malaysia. The students also wrote their reflection on the use of MOOC in their journal. Their responses were analysed and reported using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Students acknowledged that the activities were interesting and engaging. They could understand the MOOC instructions easily and clearly. Majority enjoyed peer engagement features such as comments and likes. However, the user interface and navigation were considered tough because students were not used to the platform. They also thought the lessons and activities helped them learn English. The findings revealed the potential of social learning platform to offer flexible learning experience. It could also assist the preparation of suitable materials and activities in a language enrichment programme for gifted students. Teaching and learning process could happen anywhere and anytime providing that students are motivated to complete the activities in the courses. For gifted students, this platform offers independent learning and acceleration at their own pace.

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Students for gifted program are usually selected using the traditional methods of identification (i.e., IQ and standardized achievement tests). Even for Malaysia gifted education program known as GENIUS program, the established methods such as intelligence tests are the yardstick for selecting students who are identified as gifted. GENIUS Insan, however, is a program that requires the gifted students to not only achieve high score in the standardized intelligence test, but also display the ability to memorize verses of Quran and recite them according to the correct tajweed (rules of Quran recitation). The students are also required to memorize the verses in a specific given amount of time. This study analyzed the identification process for gifted Muslim students for the 2021 cohort of Kolej GENIUS Insan, USIM in using Quran memorization as a method in identifying the qualified students for the program. The process involved a group of 232 candidates who had managed to score 130 marks and above in the standardized intelligence tests known as UKM1 and UKM2. These students were later tested individually for their ability to memorize and recite the selected verses pre-arranged for them. Those who fulfilled the criteria set by the college were offered to join the program at Kolej GENIUS Insan. Analyzing and understanding the data of the selection process and the outcome of the organized memorization test would help address the need to improve the identification method and make this selection process an effective way in drafting gifted and talented Muslim students to Kolej GENIUS Insan, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia.