Learners' Perceptions of Moocs: a Case Study from an International on-Line Learning Forum

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been a major trend, in online pedagogy and educational technology. They facilitate students' learning through the involvement of technologies which is considered an essential aspect for independent learners. The current research is an effort to analyse learners' perception for MOOCs upon their lives, pedagogy and social learning environment. This exploratory study employed a quantitative research design in which the data were gathered through a self-report questionnaire completed by 73 participants of an online learning forum. The findings show that the learners perceive MOOCs as useful for their personal, academic and professional life. They can help learners to develop confidence, lifelong learning, gain higher education and build their future career. Moreover, MOOCs are considered valuable because of their pedagogy and learning design which is easy to adopt. Some of the participants were concerned about the quality of the feedback they receive in MOOCs as they being less effective than the feedback in the regular classrooms.