Internet Learning Volume 4, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 58

The Tangible and Intangible Benefits of Offering Massive Open Online Courses: Faculty Perspectives
and Powell (2013) stated that presentday
MOOCs are generating considerable
media attention and significant interest
from higher education institutions as well
as venture capitalists who see a lucrative
business opportunity. MOOCs can be seen
as an extension of existing online learning
approaches, in terms of open access to courses
and scalability, but also offer an opportunity
to think afresh about new business learning
models that include elements of open
education. Since the first MOOC course was
offered in 2008, over ten MOOC companies
have been established in partnership with
world-renowned universities including:
Class 2 Go, Cousera, Cousesites, edX,
Google Course Builder, Instructure Canvas,
Khan Academy, NOVOEd, OpenMOOC,
Udacity and Udemy, with many others in
development.
Other lenses through which to view
MOOCs include the political sector, where
government leaders see the potential to
address the problem of higher education
budget constraints and lower the cost of
degree courses by enabling inexpensive, lowrisk
experiments in different forms of higher
education provision (Carey, 2013). The
private business sector envisions MOOCs as
a way to enter the higher education market by
providing a MOOC platform and developing
partnerships with existing institutions and
to explore new delivery models in higher
education (Yuan & Powell, 2013). Advocates
see MOOCs as a disruptive innovation that
will transform higher education. To these
varied lenses, MOOCs provide a powerful
tool to make fundamental changes in
the organization and delivery of higher
education over the next decade (Shirky,
2012). Most of the writings on MOOCs have
been presented in mainstream newspapers
and refereed academic journals. There exists
a gap in the literature on faculty perspectives
of MOOCs, hence the need to involve faculty
with regard to the design and successful
delivery of MOOCs.
Research Questions
To achieve the purpose of the study,
the following research questions guided the
study:
1. What are faculty perceptions regarding
the benefits of Massive Open Online
Courses in higher education?
2. What are the challenges of offering
MOOCs in your institution?
3. What accounts for the low completion
rates of MOOCs?
In order to achieve the purpose of this
study and answer the research questions, a
cross-sectional survey was utilized to collect
and analyze data from the study respondents.
This being an exploratory descriptive study, a
cross-sectional survey design was employed
to enable the researchers to capture faculty
perceptions regarding the benefits of
MOOCs. Thus, a self-perception survey was
selected as the instrument to collect data
since self-reporting has been found to be the
most direct and common way to establish
study participant perceptions (Anderson
& Kanuka, 1997). Dillman (2000) also
observed that self-reports serve the interest
of study participants who, in this case, were
faculty who were typically teaching using
face-to-face, online or blended methods. In
their teaching role, faculty members serve
as experts who direct the learning process,
and are critical in encouraging students
to learn for a lifetime through continuing
professional education. Hence the need
to determine their perception of MOOCs
which are mainly taken by learners who
already have first degrees and are interested
in continuing professional education (Cull,
Reed, & Kirk, 2010).
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