Elements of a Successful MOOC from Participant Perspectives

Abstract

There has been a recent proliferation and publicity surrounding Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs), which are aimed at large-scale participation and open access via the web. This paper will discuss selected participants’ self-described motives for taking a MOOC offered through Coursera and offer their general insights about the elements that made this online learning experience more effective than other online learning courses. By offering a participants’ perspective on this innovative distance learning platform, this paper hopes to allow future instructors an opportunity to better analyze those elements they may wish to consider when designing, developing, and implementing their own online instruction