Abstract

The adoption of massive open online courses (MOOCs) by celebrated universities worldwide has generated discussion about the future of education. This paper reviews motivations and challenges of instructors’ and students’ use of MOOCs and focuses on discussing one important issue that has yet to be fully addressed -- effectiveness of MOOC education for the completion rates of MOOC is relatively low. The objective of this study is to identify factors that affect individuals’ continuous participation using MOOCs from learners’ and instructor’ perspectives, which a limited amount of research has previously explored. A survey and semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine students’ views of course structure and teaching methods, the role of the instructors in the MOOC, and learners’ degree of satisfaction with instructional design quality of the course as well as users’ experience. Study shows that for learners, the accumulation of prior knowledge in the course, self-efficacy and self-regulation as well as cooperative learning environment contribute to learners’ continuous participation in the course. For instructors, instructional design quality, teaching methods and the qualified completion of multiple roles determine the value and effectiveness of a MOOC course, which affects the students’ continuity of participation. This paper goes further to offer suggestions for improving MOOC courses in the hope of developing better MOOCS courses and increasing students’ participation rates in the future. 

Keywords: MOOC; online learning; motivations; challenges; effectiveness; continuance

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

2.1. Background information of MOOCs-2

2.2. MOOCs in China-2

2.3. Motivations-3

2.3.1. Learners’ perspective-3

2.3.2. Instructors’ perspective-4

2.4. Ineffectiveness and discontinuity of learning-4

3. Research Methodology-5

3.1. Questinaire Design-5

3.2. Participants-6

3.3. Analysis method-7

4. Results and discussion-8

4.1. Course structure and teaching methods-8

4.2.The role of the instructors in the MOOC-8

4.3. Learners’ degree of satisfaction with instructional design quality of the course-9

4.4. Students' views and expectations for MOOCs-10

5. Implications-12

5.1. How instructors can engage students-12

5.2. How learners can engage themselves-15

6. Conclusion-16

Appendix-17

References-20