Motivations and Challenges in MOOCs with Eastern Insights

Abstract

Abstract-Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are the latest e-learning initiative to attain widespread popularity in the world. Unfortunately, nearly all of these studies are built from western insights. Thus, there is a need for a thematic and practical analysis of related studies to bring a better understanding of MOOCs with eastern insights. In this paper, a study is conducted focusing on the use of MOOCs from the eastern perspective. Our primary goal is to summarize the motivations and challenges of using MOOCs, as well as to identify issues that haven't yet to be fully addressed or resolved. In this paper, we employed different methodologies that included the use of a questionnaire survey and activity data analysis. The results of this study may enhance our understanding of challenges of teaching and learning in MOOCs and help educators develop MOOCs with eastern insights. Index Terms-Eastern insights, human engagement, massive open online courses (MOOCs), motivations and challenges ofMOOCs.

Exploratory study of MOOC learners’ demographics and motivation: The case of students involved in groups

“…However, compared to other studies (Radford et al, 2015;Stokes, Towers, Jinks & Symington, 2015;Zhong et al, 2016), earning credits and the relationship with participants' program, which can be assimilated to educational pursuit in previous studies, are not as important as friends when it comes to stirring students to enroll into a MOOC. For instance, 53.7% were stimulated by the connection of the course to their program, but 79.5% did not enroll to earn credits.…”

“…In this study of learners enrolled in a MOOC developed by a Chinese university, Zhong et al (2016) found that participants (55%) mostly chose MOOC because it appeared interesting and a good way to obtain knowledge. Twenty seven percent selected their MOOC to gain new skills necessary for job search; and 85% mentioned the convenience of working at their own time and location (Zhong et al, 2016).…”

“…In this study of learners enrolled in a MOOC developed by a Chinese university, Zhong et al (2016) found that participants (55%) mostly chose MOOC because it appeared interesting and a good way to obtain knowledge. Twenty seven percent selected their MOOC to gain new skills necessary for job search; and 85% mentioned the convenience of working at their own time and location (Zhong et al, 2016). While these results are in alignment with previous studies on MOOCs, learners also mentioned repeatability, which helps with understanding the content deeply (61% of participants), discussion forum (28% of participants), preference for MOOC over traditional classroom teaching (27% of participants), and visual effects of lectures (19% of participants) as motivations for enrolling in MOOCs (Zhong et al, 2016).…”

“…Twenty seven percent selected their MOOC to gain new skills necessary for job search; and 85% mentioned the convenience of working at their own time and location (Zhong et al, 2016). While these results are in alignment with previous studies on MOOCs, learners also mentioned repeatability, which helps with understanding the content deeply (61% of participants), discussion forum (28% of participants), preference for MOOC over traditional classroom teaching (27% of participants), and visual effects of lectures (19% of participants) as motivations for enrolling in MOOCs (Zhong et al, 2016). Still, these studies on MOOC learners' motivation did not investigate the motivation of learners assigned to groups in MOOCs.…”

Learner Intrinsic Motivation in Online Social Learning Platforms: A Case Study of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in Thailand

“…Amongst a number of factors behind this challenge, a lack of motivation, particularly learner intrinsic motivation is considered as one of the major components (Espinosa, Sepúlveda, & Montoya, 2015;Zhong et al, 2016). Individual learners who lack intrinsic motivation often leave the course before completing it and this can significantly increase dropout rates.…”