University Students Perceptions on the Free Mass Training Courses Online

Abstract

This research explores the opinions, focused on advantages and weaknesses, which university students have about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) today. The study constituted by perceptions is exposed by 53 students of Degree on Social Education of the Pablo de Olavide University. Through a methodology of qualitative quality, the following advantages were found: free (22.27%), favor the formation of disadvantaged groups (17.54%), have a flexible time (12.80%), help the development of virtual collaboration networks and communities (11.37%), with the availability of the university content and resources (7.11%), obtaining certificates (5.69%) and discussion forums to solve doubts (5.21%). The weaknesses of the results of MOOCs: the lack of an adequate tutorial follow-up (16.36%), present a saturation of information (14.09%), a high abandonment rate (11.36%) and an 11,82% indicate that generally the organization chart and the structure of these courses are related to the standard form with a poor pedagogical design. Likewise, 9.55% thought that the system of insufficient evaluation is based mainly on automated questionnaires. Key-words: Higher Education, MOOC, Virtual Education, Educational Innovation, Lifelong Education.