Roles of Massive Open Online Courses in Teacher Education: Examining the Massive Open Online Course Experiences of Preservice Computer and Instructional Technologies Teachers about Programming

• Main Author: Sezan SEZGİN
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bülent Ecevit University 2020-04-01
• Series: Yükseköğretim ve Bilim Dergisi
• Subjects: massive open online courses; teacher education; programming education
• Online Access: http://higheredu-sci.beun.edu.tr/pdf/pdf_HIG_1934.pdf
• ISSN: 2146-5959; 2146-5967

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are free courses provided by different universities or independent instructors, which may have massive learner numbers. In the context of lifelong learning, MOOCs present self-regulation based learning experiences for both individual and professional development. This study is a qualitative holistic single case study that seeks to examine the views of preservice teachers in the field of instructional technologies about the course designs of programming related MOOCs. Accordingly, 34 preservice teachers in the field of Computer and Instructional Technologies (CEIT), participated in the study. Participants completed at least one MOOC through the semester. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather the views of participants. Inductive content analysis steps were conducted to examine the data obtained. Content analysis of views of participants revealed nine different themes, namely; narrative-instructor, feedback-technical support-mentoring, presentation, practice, knowledge readiness, media attributes, assessment-evaluation, course duration, language barriers, and advertisements. It was also identified that the views of preservice teachers are mostly (71%) positive about MOOCs. In the context of themes revealed, several suggestions were made in reference to online course design and using MOOCs in specific topics as programming education.