MOOCs in the Malaysian higher education institutions: The instructors’ perspectives

Massive open online courses (MOOC) are considered a modern e-learning technology that was initiated by the Malaysian higher education in 2015. The current literature on MOOCs, covering research relating to its effectiveness to accommodate different students’ abilities showed conflicting results in this regard. With limited studies on MOOCs’ effectiveness in Malaysian higher education, this study explored current opportunities, challenges, and solutions of using MOOC in the Malaysian higher education institutions. Instructors from various teaching backgrounds were interviewed to respond to these concerns. The study found that the major challenges faced by instructors when using MOOC were redundancy, lack of facilities and exposure, incompetent knowledge in MOOC course design and development, and insufficient leadership and capacity-building programmes. Therefore, possible solutions to these challenges were identified and discussed. These findings can help the policy makers explore strategies for the future development, implementation and success of MOOC in the context of higher education in Malaysia. Abbreviations: MOOC: Massive Open Online Courses; cMOOC: Connectivist Massive Open Online Courses; xMOOC: eXtended Massive Open Online Courses; ahMOOC: adaptive hybrid Massive Open Online Courses; LMS: Learning Management System; MQA: Malaysian Qualifications Agency; STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.