Motivation and perceived costs to achievement in advanced moocs: a mixed method study of advanced engineering mooc engineering learners’ motivation and perceived barriers

• Autores: Mitchell Zielinski, Victoria West, Hillary E. Merzdorf, Kerrie A. Douglas, Peter Bermel
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 35, no. Extra 5, 2019, págs. 1540-1550
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Given recent, rapid changes in engineering workplaces, massive open online courses, or MOOCs are a promising option foreducating the workforce with new knowledge and skills. However, few take full advantage of these resources, in part becauseprofessional learners can have many constraints limiting their ability to fully participate. Our research uses an explanatory mixed-methods design to examine differences in learners’ self-reported factors hindering their ability to succeed in a course, and theirperceived outcomes of not finishing the course. We administered a pre-course survey in three advanced nanotechnology MOOCs tosurvey learners’ motivation from an Expectancy–Value–Cost framework, resulting in 806 responses. Learners responded to theshort version of the EVC scale, as well as two open-ended questions regarding barriers to engagement and perceived outcomes offailure in the course. Using the cost subscale, we grouped learners into the highest and lowest cost quartiles. In parallel, wedeveloped codes and themes for the qualitative items via open coding and used themes to compare high-cost and low-cost learnerson areas which affect their potential success and effects of failure. Both groups cited barriers of work, time, and personalcommitments, with high-cost learners reporting these factors more often. They generally listed few consequences of not beingsuccessful, but an equal number of high-cost and low-cost learners wanted to retake the course if they failed. Professionals balancemotivational costs from many areas when participating in courses, and advanced professional MOOCs must be accommodating iflearners are to persist.