MOOC’s students concerned about quality of content and instructors
A new study questions traditional college students on what they think about MOOCS (massive open online courses), finding a number of concerns that mirror those of administrators. According to eCampus News, the students were concerned about the accuracy of course content and instructor quality, feeling that while it is good that people with information can share it in a MOOC platform, it is a drawback to the system because their teaching materials are not necessarily peer-reviewed. Furthermore, almost a quarter of interviewees said outcomes were a major concern, pointing to course credit for MOOCs as a way to legitimise them for students.
New qualitative research reveals students may know more about MOOCs than institutions think; have doubts on reliability.

MOOCs have the potential to reach learners who otherwise may not have access to postsecondary education, but they have a long way to go in proving reliability of information and quality of content.

That may sound like a researcher or wary administrator’s perspective, but these sentiments are strongly expressed by today’s college students.

In a new qualitative data report, Communication Instructor Dr. Andrew Cole at Waukesha County Technical College and Dr. C. Erik Timmerman, associate professor at the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, reveal the thoughts of one large university’s current college students toward MOOCs.

“Despite the fact that college students presumably would be greatly affected by widespread adoption of MOOCs in higher education, very little attention is paid to current college students’ perceptions and attitudes toward MOOCs,” write the authors. “It is heretofore unclear how familiar college students are with the MOOC concept and how they view MOOCs as a source of learning.”

Another reason the researchers say gauging student perceptions of MOOCs is critical is to try and determine their long-term success.

“Much research into MOOC learners focuses on experiences within MOOC courses. However, students currently enrolled in MOOCs constitute a population of early adopters of a new technology,” note the authors. “For MOOCs to be widely accepted as effective means of education, MOOCs must achieve a critical mass of users to either align with, or overcome, prevalent existing students’ attitudes toward higher education.”

The authors emphasize that, “at a minimum,” efforts to market MOOCs must address the concerns that potential users may raise about this mode of learning.

(Next page: Conducting the survey; survey results)