Awareness and usage of MOOCs: The underrepresented experience

Abstract

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) allow individuals to expand educational boundaries. The proliferation of MOOCs holds the potential to enhance access to quality learning materials for those who lack these resources, such as young adults in low-income communities; African Americans are overrepresented in these communities. There has been little attention to investigating how African Americans in higher education use MOOCs for personal and career development, and even less attention to how these young adults become aware of MOOCs. This empirical study identifies how African Americans from underserved communities in New Jersey became aware of MOOCs and their uses of it.