The use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in blended learning courses and the functional value perceived by students

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are presented as an option to the traditional model of higher education institutions. MOOCs have been used as part of face-to-face regular university courses as a new form of blended learning (BL), but little is known about the best ways to design effective MOOC-based BL. Besides, studies that assess the intention to continue using MOOCs do not assess their quality and value as perceived by students. This study aims to understand how MOOCs can be better integrated into blended learning. To do so, an exploratory case study was carried out a in MOOC-based BL in the discipline Fundamentals of Administration at a Brazilian university to evaluate three aspects: (1) pedagogical approach/rationale; (2) pedagogical/instructional design for integrating the MOOC into the course; and (3) perceived quality and value by the students. The results show that the MOOC was used as a blended learning method in an introductory course, replacing part of the hours of face-to-face classes, allowing an increase of the number of students per teacher, besides making the discipline more attractive to the students. Results also show that the functional value perceived by the students is favorable, with a score of 4.53 (7-point scale) and is influenced by the perceived quality regarding the MOOC (r = 0.29) and blended learning process (r = 0.22). This study extends previous research by demonstrating two different designs of MOOC-based BL that contribute to the improvement of the pedagogical process, reduce costs, and improve the quality problems of MOOCs. In addition, this study developed a model that associates perceived quality and perceived value with the intention to continue MOOCs within the context of the MOOC-based BL. This model may be used to evaluate which strategies for MOOC-based BL generate the highest perceived quality by the students.