Abstract
This study seeks to investigate the readiness levels of adult students studying in Malaysian higher education institutions. The online questionnaire used in this study consists of 18 demographic variables and 43 items based on six constructs: technical competencies, communication competencies, social competencies, self-efficacy, self-directedness, and readiness. With a sample of 413 respondents, the constructs were evaluated using measures based on students’ self-identification with each item. Descriptive statistics depict competency, demographic profile of students, and level of readiness. The statistical analyses used for this study were Pearson correlation, multivariate analysis of variance, and structural equation modelling. All six constructs were reliable with Cronbach’s alpha (α) above 0.7. Findings indicate that self-efficacy was significant for massive open online course readiness, and additional factors that could influence this readiness are explored. The findings from this study provide important input towards designing effective massive open online courses.
Highlights
The Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) in its 2015 education blueprint stated its support for the inclusion of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in tertiary education as a strategy to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the country
This study explores the adaptation of the Student Online Learning Readiness (SOLR) Model to predict MOOCs readiness among Malaysian adult students
The adapted model investigates the use of five competencies in predicting MOOCs readiness, namely: (i) social competency, (ii) communication competency, (iii) technical competency, (iv) self-efficacy, and (v) self-directedness
Summary
The Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) in its 2015 education blueprint stated its support for the inclusion of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in tertiary education as a strategy to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the country. The most recent development in the use of MOOCs in Malaysia is the publication of the Guideline on Credit Transfer for MOOC by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) (MQA, 2016). The establishment of such an environment which supports the use of MOOCs by the government offers a great advantage to the building of the nation’s education infrastructure. There are various forms of MOOCs including the widely known cMOOC and xMOOC The former is based on the connectivism learning theory: a learning theory drawn from the digital age which was incidentally developed by Downes and Siemens who created the first cMOOC (Sokolik, 2014). There are claims of MOOCs with a number of features that may not necessarily represent the aforementioned definition
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