Empowering Blended Learning via MOOCs for Teacher Education in Malaysian Higher Education

Abstract

Previous years have seen emerging learning environments such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) that alter the higher education landscape. MOOCs provide a platform to conduct globalized online learning with various approaches, learners and contexts – further expanding the possibilities of its applications in the context of teacher education in blended learning at higher education level. Malaysia too has begun to adopt MOOCs via its nationwide initiative, called Malaysia MOOCs, in which all public universities produce and implement MOOCs in blended learning settings. To date, the initiative has produced around 570 MOOCs with enrolments of over 380,000 learners. Nevertheless, with regard to MOOCs in teacher education, limited research has been carried out in this field; hence, we have yet to fully understand its potentials, benefits and drawbacks in higher education. As such, this chapter will discuss these aspects in the context of Asian higher education where a case study in Malaysia is presented. The discussion revolves around whether MOOCs in blended learning enhance or disrupt learning. This chapter ends with a discussion on issues, challenges and future directions of MOOCs in blended learning for higher education in Malaysian, Asian and global contexts.