Evaluating the Design Standard of UiTM Massive Open Online Courses

Abstract

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was one of the initiatives of the Malaysia Ministry of Education to ensure the standard of our national education system was at par with the global education trends. This initiative was documented in Malaysian Education Blueprint 2015 -2025 (Higher Education, Shift No.9: Globalised Online Learning). Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) was among the public universities in Malaysia that were seriously involved in MOOC development. Starting with one MOOC in 2014, four MOOCs in 2015, 16 MOOCs in 2016, UiTM embarked into developing 450 new MOOCs in 2017. To ensure UiTM MOOC had achieved the required standard and quality of Malaysian MOOC, an internal guideline for UiTM MOOC Development (i-Learn Centre, 2016) was constructed. The construction of the guideline was based on the standard provided by the Guidelines of Development and Delivery of Malaysian MOOC (KPT, 2017). Some additional elements required by the administrator of UiTM MOOC were also added. The study was interested to determine whether the MOOCs developed by UiTM lecturers complied with the standard of UiTM MOOC and ultimately the Malaysian MOOC. It was also interested to determine the readiness of UiTM MOOC for credit transfer. To do that, a UiTM MOOC Evaluation Checklist was introduced. The checklist consisted of 45 questions which were constructed based on the guideline on UiTM MOOC Development (i-Learn Centre, 2016) and the Guidelines for Credit Transfer for MOOC (MQA, 2016). The study evaluated two active UiTM MOOCs in terms of adherence to the standard of UiTM MOOC. The findings of the study highlighted areas to be improved and provided suggestions to increase readiness for MOOC credit transfer.