Quality of MOOCs: A review of literature on effectiveness and quality aspects

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) is a trending phenomenon in online education. Number of participants in a MOOC and the number of MOOCs by platforms and courses are appearing to be increasing at a tremendous level. Although MOOC found to be the “buzz” word, latest reports claim that the hype of the MOOC is fading. One reason to this is because many MOOCs offered and created despite of evaluating the effectiveness of it. Therefore the qualities of MOOCs are under criticism. It is essential to seek possible solutions to balance the learner goal while offering a quality service. Working towards the direction, this literature review focuses on past researches carried out in identifying the success factors, best practices, and effectiveness of a MOOC. We focused literature published between 2012 and 2015 and found significantly less number of empirical evidence in discovering MOOC quality factors. Out of 4745 peer reviewed publications which met with the search terms, only 26 literatures found to produce highly relevant in deciding a quality of a MOOC. Out the 26 literatures, only 3 provided a quality dimensions with empirical evidence and 7 provided with proposal frameworks based on past literature. We discuss the concerns arising from the review and identify issues including lack of evidence in identifying the critical success factors, absence of social interactions, networking, anthropological and ethnographic view in determining a quality MOOC.