Evolution and Advancement in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to Revolutionize Education Sector via Disruptive Technology: The Case of Pakistan
Keywords:
disruptive technology, inclusive education, massive open online courses (MOOC), online educationAbstract
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is a relatively recent advancement in the distance learning and online education. With the strategic collaboration of the founders of MOOC (MIT and Harvard University), many universities and institutions across the world offer a variety of courses in numerous domains. MOOCs have disrupted the global education sector by providing free to subsidized inclusive education. These include state-of-the-art pedagogies, assessment tools and interactive cum engaging learning sessions. This article aims to discover the opportunities and inclinations of adult students in Pakistan toward MOOC, especially their awareness, perceptions, peer and mentor advice and self-motivation and commitment to do such courses. The study deployed in-depth interviews under phenomenology approach using Delphi method for this study. Twenty-four students from management sciences department of a leading university in Karachi were selected: 12 who had done courses through MOOC and 12 who had never done any course on MOOC. Ten experts on distance education and online education were selected through snowball sampling method for the study. The findings uncovered that the inclination of the students towards MOOC is at its inception stage.
References
Abeysekera, L., & Dawson, P. (2015). Motivation and cognitive load in the flipped
classroom: definition, rationale and a call for research. Higher Education Research
& Development, 34(1), 1-14.
Alraimi, K. M., Zo, H., & Ciganek, A. P. (2015). Understanding the MOOCs continuance:
The role of openness and reputation. Computers & Education, 80, 28-38.
Annabi, C. A., & Muller, M. (2016). Learning from the adoption of MOOCs in two
international branch campuses in the UAE. Journal of Studies in International
Education, 20(3), 260-281.
Baglione, S. (2013). Online classes: An evaluation by traditional-aged students. Advances
in Business Research, 4(1), 68-76.
Bali, M. (2014). MOOC pedagogy: Gleaning good practice from existing MOOCs. Journal
of Online Learning and Teaching, 10(1), 44-56.
Bashir, S., Syed, S., & Qureshi, J. A. (2017), Philosophical and methodological aspects
of mixed-methods research: A review of the academic literature. Journal of
Independent Studies and Research, 15(1), 32-50.
Boyd, G., & Kasraie, N. (2013). Can MOOC fires bring light to shadow education?
International Journal of Learning and Development, 3(4), 87-95.
Coursera. (2019). Learn a skill or earn a degree - Find out more about Coursera.
https://www.coursera.org/degrees
Croxton, R. A. (2014). The role of interactivity in student satisfaction and persistence in
online learning. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 10(2), 314.
Davis, H. C., Dickens, K., Leon Urrutia, M., Vera, S., del Mar, M., & White, S. (2014).
MOOCs for universities and learners an analysis of motivating factors. Paper
presented at the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education.
Retrieved from http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/363714/
Domínguez-Flores, N., & Wang, L. (2011). Online learning communities: Enhancing
undergraduate students’ acquisition of information skills. The Journal of Academic
Librarianship, 37(6), 495-503.
edX. (2019). edX - Online courses from the world’s best universities. Retrieved from
Glance, D. G., Forsey, M., & Riley, M. (2013). The pedagogical foundations of
massive open online courses. First Monday, 18(5), 1-10.
Harvard Business School. (2019). Free online courses and MOOCs - Class. Retrieved from
https://www.class-central.com › Universities
Harvard University. (2019). Free online Harvard University courses and MOOCs -
MOOC List. Retrieved from https://www.mooc-list.com/university-entity/harvard-
university
Ho, A. D., Reich, J., Nesterko, S., Seaton, D. T., Mullaney, T., Waldo, J., & Chuang, I. (2014).
HarvardX and MITx: The first year of open online courses, fall 2012-summer
HarvardX and MITx, Working Paper No. 1, 1-33.
Iqbal, S., Naeem, M. A., & Nayyar, A. (2016, November). Status of MOOCs in Pakistan:
Optimism and concerns. In 2016 European Modelling Symposium (EMS), 237-
IEEE.
Kurzman, P. A. (2013). The evolution of distance learning and online education. Journal of
Teaching in Social Work, 33(4-5), 331-338.
Langdridge, D. (2008). Phenomenology and critical social psychology: Directions and
debates in theory and research. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(3),
-1142.
Liyanagunawardena, T. R., Adams, A. A., & Williams, S. A. (2013). MOOCs: A systematic
study of the published literature 2008-2012. The International Review of Research
in Open and Distributed Learning, 14(3), 202-227.
Liyanagunawardena, T., Williams, S., & Adams, A. (2013). The impact and reach of
MOOCs: A developing countries’ perspective. eLearning Papers, 33(1), 1-8.
Margaryan, A., Bianco, M., & Littlejohn, A. (2015). Instructional quality of massive open
online courses (MOOCs). Computers & Education, 80, 77-83.
Martin, F. G. (2012). Will massive open online courses change how we teach?
Communications of the ACM, 55(8), 26-28.
Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., & Jones, K. (2009). Evaluation of evidence-
based practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning
studies. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Microsoft. (2019). Microsoft MOOCs and free online courses - MOOC List. Retrieved
from
https://www.mooc-list.com/tags/microsoft
MIT OpenCourseWare. (2019). Free Online Course Materials. Retrieved from https://ocw.
mit.edu/index.htm
Noer, M. (2012). One man, one computer, 10 million students: How Khan Academy is
reinventing education. Forbes.com. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/
sites/michaelnoer/2012/11/02/one-man-one-computer-10-million-students-how-
khan-academy-is-reinventing-education/
Okoli, C., & Pawlowski, S. D. (2004). The Delphi method as a research tool: An example,
design considerations and applications. Information & Management, 42(1), 15-29.
Qureshi, J. A. (2016). Evolution and advancement in massive open online courses (MOOC)
to revolutionize education: The case of Pakistan. In Proceedings of LINC 2016
Conference, MIT USA.
Rodriguez, O. (2013). The concept of openness behind c and x-MOOCs (Massive Open
Online Courses). Open Praxis, 5(1), 67-73.
Thompson, C. (2011). How Khan Academy is changing the rules of education. Wired
Magazine, 126. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2011/07/ff_khan/
Wellen, R. (2013). Open access, mega-journals, and MOOCs. SAGE Open, 3(4), 1-16.
Yuan, L., & Powell, S. (2013). MOOCs and disruptive innovation: Implications for higher
education. eLearning Papers, In-depth, 33(2), 1-7.
Zikmund, W., Babin, B., Carr, J., & Griffin, M. (2012). Business research methods. Boston:
Cengage Learning.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Journal of Education and Educational Development

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.















