A new study found that teaching massive open online
courses (MOOCs) takes its toll on instructors. The research concluded that
supporting instructors may be as important to creation of successful courses as
attracting students, according to a report on phys.org.
When researchers from Penn State University and the
University of Central Florida interviewed 14 MOOC instructors for the study,
they found only four who expressed interested in teaching them on a regular
basis. Two instructors said they won’t teach another MOOC and another four
worried about the demands of teaching a MOOC as well as a regular class.
Instructors said they struggled to find new ways to
teach a MOOC and needed support in course preparation, implementation, and
feedback. Dealing with teaching a class the size of a MOOC can be a challenge.
One instructor told researchers that the preparation for a course took nearly
400 hours on top of regular teaching responsibilities.
“Most
of the research on how we can make MOOCs successful has focused on the student
side—how do we attract and retain them, for instance—but now attention is
starting to switch to instructors, who make the MOOCs happen,” said Sajing
Zheng, a doctoral candidate in information sciences and technology at Penn
State who helped conduct the research. “So it’s important to know the
motivations of the instructors for teaching this new format and their
experiences and challenges when they teach these MOOCs.”
