Abstract
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are one of the most innovative forms of online instruction delivered to learners of different language, cultural and educational backgrounds around the world. These multicultural learners have diverse communication styles, learning behaviors and needs that are manifested and demonstrated differently in such a large scale online learning environment as MOOCs. There is little research on how aspects of MOOC learners’ diverse cultural backgrounds and learning behaviors are perceived, how these learners are characterized in terms of their learning needs, and how the MOOC instructors and instructional designers respond to these needs in the course design process. 
 
 The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe how MOOC learners’ diverse learning needs, stemming from their different language, cultural and educational backgrounds, were perceived and responded to during the course design and delivery. Participants were fifteen instructors and instructional designers in American higher educational institutions who were involved in designing and delivering a wide variety of MOOC subjects on the Coursera hosting platform. The insights of participants into specific instructional strategies that were designed especially for MOOC multicultural learners’ needs were categorized into three themes: language, content and engagement. These strategies aimed to provide support and engage learners with English language barriers, or those who did not have the necessary subject background to keep up with the course, or those who were not familiar with the American education culture. The study also investigated the pedagogical challenges and concerns that the participants faced during and after the delivery of the MOOCs. Typical challenges included confusions caused during the discussion triggered by the subject, the participants’ struggle with the efficiency of peer assessment, and the applicability of the content materials for the global audience.
Highlights
Introduction to Cataract xSurgeryPowerful Tools for xTeaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling xRural Health Nursing xProperty and Liability: An Introduction to Law and Economics xInspiring Leadership x x through Emotional Intelligence xTeaching assistant xxxxxxxxxxxxxxPowerPoint/ study guides xxxxxxxxxxxxxxGoals for Developing the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)The goals of offering the MOOCs revealed by the participants were dynamic and somewhat set the tone for how they perceived and responded to MOOC multicultural learners’ needs
This paper proposed a new research agenda focusing on (1) insights into learners’ behaviors and learning needs determined by their multicultural backgrounds, (2) the use of instructional strategies that responded to the identified needs during MOOC design and development, and (3) possible pedagogical challenges identified by the instructors and course designers when attempting to respond to the needs
Course format support included a number of techniques the instructors used to either (1) enhance the learners’ comprehension of content or to (2) reinforce learners’ engagement, such as (a) creating multiple discussion venues via Coursera discussion forums, Facebook page, or virtual office hours; (b) creating meet-and-greet discussion threads on the discussion forum; (c) encouraging learners to create study groups based on their language background or geographical location; (d) having virtual meetings via Google Hangout; or (e) employing mentors or teaching assistants to monitor the discussion forums, to help translate the course content videos, or to help with assessment
Summary
Introduction to Cataract xSurgeryPowerful Tools for xTeaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling xRural Health Nursing xProperty and Liability: An Introduction to Law and Economics xInspiring Leadership x x through Emotional Intelligence xTeaching assistant xxxxxxxxxxxxxxPowerPoint/ study guides xxxxxxxxxxxxxxGoals for Developing the MOOCsThe goals of offering the MOOCs revealed by the participants were dynamic and somewhat set the tone for how they perceived and responded to MOOC multicultural learners’ needs. Property and Liability: An Introduction to Law and Economics x. Inspiring Leadership x x through Emotional Intelligence x. Goals for Developing the MOOCs. The goals of offering the MOOCs revealed by the participants were dynamic and somewhat set the tone for how they perceived and responded to MOOC multicultural learners’ needs. The overarching and probably most common goals of MOOC pursuit by all the participants was to spread the reputation of the university and to assist people all over the world in learning about the topic, these participants were attracted to MOOCs by more than these common goals.
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