Benefits of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) participation: Qualitative Synthesis (Preprint) (original) (raw)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Although MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) as originally conceived promised to provide educational access to anyone with an internet connection, there are limits to how expansive MOOC education has turned out to be. Nonetheless, leading universities continue to offer MOOCs, including many in the health sciences, on a number of private platforms. Therefore research on online education must include a thorough understanding of the role of MOOCs. Thus far studies on MOOC participants focus mainly on learners’ assessment of the course. We know that MOOCs are not reaching the universal audiences that were once predicted, and we know a lot about learners’ perceptions of MOOCs. However, there is little scholarship on what learners themselves gain from participating in MOOCs. OBJECTIVE As MOOC development persists and expands, scholars and developers should be aware of the role of MOOCs in education by looking at what they do offer their participants. In this qualitative synthes...

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