University Students' and Teachers' Perceptions of the Effectiveness of MOOCs in the Teaching-Learning Process


DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52380/ijcer.2025.12.3.750Keywords:
Effectiveness of MOOCs, Teaching, Learning, Grounded theory, Advantages, Limitations, Suggestions, RecommendationsAbstract
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become one of the highly accepted sources of online teaching and learning these days. Even though MOOCs have gotten wider popularity, its efficacy in teaching and learning is an ongoing topic of discussion. The narrative review in this paper provided the detailed insights of the effectiveness and the limitations of the MOOCs in the academic literature. The present research performs qualitative data analysis using Grounded Theory method (interpretative approach) to find out the effectiveness of MOOCs in teaching and learning involving university teachers handling MOOCs modules and students learning them in a longitudinal study of two successive academic years. The research identifies the benefits, drawbacks, and ideas and recommendations for enhancing MOOC-based teaching and learning.
References
Atiaja, L. A., & Proenza, R. (2016). The MOOCs: origin, characterization, principal problems and challenges in Higher Education. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1093
Baturay, M. H. (2015). An overview of the world of MOOCs. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 174, 427-433. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.685
Berrocoso, J. V. (2014). MOOCS: A critical view from the Educational Sciences. Profesorado, Revista de Currículum y Formación del Profesorado, 18(1), 93-111. https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/profesorado/article/view/19127
Cabrera, N., & Fernández-Ferrer, M. (2017). Examining MOOCs: A comparative study among educational technology experts in traditional and open universities. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(2), 47-67. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i2.2789
Carrera, J., & Ramírez-Hernández, D. (2018). Innovative education in MOOC for sustainability: Learnings and motivations. Sustainability, 10(9), 2990. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10092990
Chatterjee, P., & Nath, A. (2014, December). Massive open online courses (MOOCs) in education—A case study in Indian context and vision to ubiquitous learning. In 2014 IEEE International Conference on MOOC, Innovation and Technology in Education (MITE) (pp. 36-41). IEEE.
Chew, L. K. (2015). Instructional strategies and challenges in MOOCs. Advances in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2(1), 41-50. https://edc.lums.ac.ir/uploads/69/2024/Jul/17/INSTRUCTIONAL%20STRATEGIES%20AND%20CHALLENGES%20IN%20MOOCS.pdf
Corbin, J. M., & Strauss, A. L. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory (Second ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Downing, A. (1994). An Investigation of the Advance Organizer Theory as an Effective Teaching Model. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Australian Teacher Education Association (24th, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, July 3-6, 1994). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED377150.pdf
Faizuddin, S. M., & Azeeza, S. E. (2015). Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Advantages and challenges. An International Peer Reviewed Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 2, 48-52. https://www.ksijmr.com/2.2.5.pdf
Gaebel, M. (2013). MOOCs –Massive Open Online Courses EAU Occasional papers available at http://www.eua.be//Libraries/Publication/EUA_Occasional_Papers_MOOCs.sflb.ashx
Hollands, F. M., & Tirthali, D. (2014). MOOCs: expectations and reality. Full report. Center for Benefit Cost Studies of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY. Retrieved from: http://cbcse.org/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2014/05/MOOCs_Expectations_and_Reality.pdf
Hoy, M. B. (2014). MOOCs 101: an introduction to massive open online courses. Medical reference services quarterly, 33(1), 85-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2014.866490
Kesim, M., & Altınpulluk, H. (2015). A theoretical analysis of MOOCs types from a perspective of learning theories. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 186, 15-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.056
Li, Y. (2019, May). MOOCs in higher education: opportunities and challenges. In 5th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2019) (Vol. 10). https://doi.org/10.2991/ichssr-19.2019.10
Mohan, M. M., Upadhyaya, P., & Pillai, K. R. (2020). Intention and barriers to use MOOCs: An investigation among the postgraduate students in India. Education and Information Technologies, 25, 5017-5031. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10215-2
Rajendran, P., Gouda, N.K., Srinivasavarathan, S. (2023). Understanding the Digital Divide in Inclusive Classrooms. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68127-2_419-1
Siemens, G. (2013). Massive open online courses: Innovation in education? In R.McGreal, W.Kinuthia, & S. Marshall (Eds.), Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research, and Practice (pp. 5-15). Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/486
Sonwalkar, J., & Maheshkar, C. (2015). MOOCS: a massive platform for collaborative learning in a globalized way. Journal of Management Research and Analysis, 2(2), 142-149. https://www.jmra.in/article-details/711
Vázquez-Cano, E., López-Meneses, E., Gómez-Galán, J., & Parra-González, M. (2021). Innovative university practices on the educational advantages and disadvantages of MOOC Environments. http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/red.422141
Walker, L., & Loch, B. (2014). Academics’ perceptions on the quality of MOOCs: An empirical study. INNOQUAL-International Journal for Innovation and Quality in Learning, 2(3), 53-63. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308691929_Academics'_Perceptions_on_the_Quality_of_MOOCs_An_Empirical_Study
Yuan, L., Powell, S. J., & Olivier, B. (2014). Beyond MOOCs: Sustainable online learning in institutions. https://publications.cetis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Beyond-MOOCs-Sustainable-Online-Learning-in-Institutions.pdf
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Sarikha Srinivasavaradhan, Nikhil Kumar Gouda, Anish Kumar Sahoo, Anusree Kannan, Poornima Rajendran

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