International Journal of Commerce and Management Studies (IJCAMS)

Volume 6, Issue 1; ISSN 2456-3684

www.ijcams.com
A Study on Role and Impact of MOOCs in Enhancing the
Learning Experience of Post Graduate Students of
Management
Dr. Deepa Choudhari,
Assistant Professor,
Govindrao Wanjari College of Engineering & Technology

Abstract: Elements of online open education have been in

place as early as 2002, when the Massachusetts
Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) is an open
online course that enhances and provides learning
Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Open Course
opportunities to students. In view of this, the study Ware initiative, which provided free and open
throws light on the impact of MOOC on Post Graduate access to the same educational materials that
Students of Management. Despite the growing interest enrolled MIT students used, was rolled out. The
in MOOCs applicability in higher education, very little first true MOOC, however, was “Connectivism
is known about the impact of MOOC among and Connective Knowledge” developed and
postgraduate students in their programme. For this taught by Stephen Downes and George Siemens
study Post Graduate Students of Management were in 2008. This course focused on the constructivist
selected and the study says that they are aware of approach to knowledge and learning, which was
MOOCs as they are registered in MOOC course. The
both the subject and organization of the course.
study also highlights on the point that MOOC not only
Constructivism, or networked learning theory,
enriching their knowledge but also encouraging them
for entrepreneurial activities in the future. This study emphasizes the role of socialization and
demonstrates that the platforms and contents of the technology, among other elements, in learning;
MOOC have a major influence on the students in a courses modeled on this approach were called
positive manner towards achievement of their goal. constructivist MOOCs, or cMOOCs.

Keywords: MOOC, Post Graduate Management The term MOOCs was originally coined by
Students, Knowledge Dave Cormier of the University of Prince
Edward Island in 2008 for a large online class
I Introduction:
taught by George Seimens of Athabasc a
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are a University and Stephen Downes of Canada' s
flexible and open form of self-directed, online National Research Council Canada.
learning designed for mass participation who has
Most MOOCs share these qualities :
an Internet connection. While there are varying
degrees of access across myriad providers and
1. Course participants are likely to be distributed
platforms, and a diverse array of course content
all over the world.
on every imaginable subject, an underling 2. Course content is not located in any one place,
principle central to MOOCs is that they are freely but found all over the web.
available. This differs greatly from the tuition- 3. The online classroom is one of many hubs
based model of higher education in many where interaction occurs, which can also
countries across the world. include personal blogs or portfolios, websites,
social networking sites, and more.
 International Journal of Commerce and Management Studies (IJCAMS)
Volume 6, Issue 1; ISSN 2456-3684
www.ijcams.com
4. Participants and instructors aggregate remix MOOC literature. Ebben and Murphy
and repurpose the content during the course. (2014) provide a systematic review of MOOC
5. The courses do not have specific requirements , scholarship, highlighting two distinct phases of
but participants are required to stay up to date
with rough schedules. discourse: from an early connectivity focus to a
6. Most MOOCs are free; there may be a fee if later behavioral focus. In this later phase the
the participant is working toward a form of growth of learning analytics is highlighted, with
accreditation. the process of delivering MOOCs itself providing
a rich source for data mining to better understand
II. Objectives learner behavior.

1. To know about the role of MOOC on Marks, Sibley, and Arbaugh (2005) argue that
the students’ learning process. researchers should study three aspects of online
2. To know about the awareness of learning: instructor-student interaction; student-
MOOC among the Post Graduate student interaction and student-content
Students of Management.
interaction. In an empirical study they found
3. To analyze the impact of MOOC on
Post Graduate students of significant effects of both the instructor-student
Management. interaction and student-student interaction on
self-rated learning effectiveness, with the
III. Hypothesis: instructor-student interaction having twice the
effect of student-student interaction. They were
H0: MOOC do not have significant unable to demonstrate statistically significant
impact on Post Graduate students of effects of the student-content variables in their
Management model, however these were measured by single-
H1: MOOC have significant impact on
Post Graduate students of indicator latent variables related to presentation
Management. features, some of which were rarely used in the
sample of courses (such as use of streaming
IV. Literature Review: audio, streaming video) and some of which were
ubiquitous (e.g. PowerPoint presentations).
MOOCs are the subject of increasing attention,
both in the popular press (e.g. Pappano, V. Research Design
2012, Kovanović et al., 2015) and as a topic for
The present study is to analyze the role and
academic research. An early systematic review of
impact of MOOCs on learning process of Post
MOOC research was provided
Graduate Students of Management. The
by Liyanagunawardena et al. (2013). This review
population for the present study is Post Graduate
found that much of the reported empirical
Students of Management who were enrolled in
research followed a case study approach; it also
MOOC course. A set of questionnaire were
highlighted a number of gaps in the literature
distributed to respondents through Google forms.
including a lack of exploration of MOOC
A total sample of 52 respondents participated in
experiences in the developing world and a lack of
the survey. A descriptive statistical analysis was
research considering the perspective of MOOC
employed in analyzing and interpreting the data.
non-completers.
The data was analyzed in terms of the mean
Raffaghelli, Cucchiara, and Persico scores. The values provided further
(2015) similarly found a high reliance on case interpretations of the findings in answering the
studies in their review of methodology within the research questions.
 International Journal of Commerce and Management Studies (IJCAMS)
Volume 6, Issue 1; ISSN 2456-3684
www.ijcams.com
VI. Data Analysis

6.1 Gender of Respondents

6.1 Gender
Male Female

35%
65%

Source: Primary Data

Interpretation: From the above graph it is clear that the maximum respondents are female as compared to
male.

6.2 Students Enrollment in MOOC.

6.2 Students enrolled in

number of MOOC
courses
17% 6% 21% 1
2
56% 3
>=4

Source: Primary Data

Interpretation: The students are showing a positive response for joining the MOOC course and most of
the students enrolled in 2 courses followed by 3 courses and 1 course and very few opted for more than 4
courses

6.3 Source of MOOC Information:

 International Journal of Commerce and Management Studies (IJCAMS)
Volume 6, Issue 1; ISSN 2456-3684
www.ijcams.com

6.3 Source of MOOC

Information
0% 2%
8%
Family
Friends
Teacher/Mentor
Mass media
90%

Source: Primary Data

Interpretation: The major source of information to students regarding MOOC is Teacher/Mentor 90% as
they are not aware about the MOOC course, its registration process and other information regarding course.
The other sources through which students came to know about MOOC are Friends 8%, Mass media 1%.

6.4 Impact of MOOC on Respondent:

6.4 Impact of MOOCs on Personality

Development of Respondent
40 34
35 30
30 27
24
25 5- Strongly Agree
18
20 14 13 4-Agree
15 9 9 9
8 8
10 3-Neutral
5 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 1
0 2-Disagree
Enhanced Enriched my Improvement in Motivation 1-Strongly Disagree
Interpersonal knowledge communication towards
skills skills enterpreneurial
activities

Source: Primary Data

Interpretation: As per the data collected it is learnt that among respondents who completed courses, MOOCs
do have a real impact on them in terms of enhancing interpersonal skills, enrichment in knowledge,
improvement in communication skills and motivation towards Entrepreneurial activities. The research was
done by collecting data from 52 students who have completed course and the data is represented in the graph
below which indicates that maximum respondents i.e., more than 50% are in opinion of enhancing
 International Journal of Commerce and Management Studies (IJCAMS)
Volume 6, Issue 1; ISSN 2456-3684
www.ijcams.com
interpersonal skills, knowledge and motivation towards entrepreneurial activities and improvement of
communication skills.

6.5 Role of MOOC in Learning Experience of Post Graduate Management Students:

6.5 Role of MOOCs in Learning Experience of Post

Graduate Management Students
35 31 30
30 28
26 26
25 23

20
15 5- Strongly Agree
13 14 13
15 12 11 12 11 4-Agree
9 10
10 7 8 3-Neutral

5 3 2-Disagree
21 10 2 11 2
0 0 0 1-Strongly Disagree
0
The delivery I was able to Assignment Motivated to Gained It helped me
was well get all study has explore new essential to prepare
planned and material enhanced things knowledge for a
executed easily my learning for my field standardized
of study examination

Source: Primary Data

Interpretation: Maximum respondents tended to For assignment 15 respondents strongly agree

describe positive outcomes from learning and 23 students agree that assignment has
experience. enhanced their learning while 13 respondents are
in neutral opinion and 1 student is not in opinion
From the above graph it is understood that out of of the same.
52 responses 9 respondents strongly agree and 28
respondents agree that there is better planning Maximum respondents are in the opinion that
and execution of lecture whereas 3 students are MOOCs have motivated them to explore new
not in favor of the opinion while 12 respondents things, to gain essential knowledge for their
are in neutral position. required field and also helped them for a
standardized examination.
Out of 52 respondents 11 students strongly agree
and 31 students agree that there is easy In overall scenario it is clearly understood that
availability of study material, 7 respondents are MOOC had a positive learning experience and
in neutral opinion and the rest are not in opinion significant impact among the respondents.
of the same.
 International Journal of Commerce and Management Studies (IJCAMS)
Volume 6, Issue 1; ISSN 2456-3684
www.ijcams.com
Hypothesis Testing: The hypothesis is tested by considered the average value and all the
calculating the Descriptive Analysis through parameters have the mean score above 2.5 so our
Data Analysis (Excel). null hypothesis is rejected and alternate
hypothesis is accepted that MOOCs have a
From the below table it is clear that the mean significant impact on Post Graduate students of
value is above 2.5 which the researcher has Management.

Table showing Descriptive Analysis for Impact of MOOC on Students

Standard Standard
Parameters Count Mean Error deviation
Enhanced Interpersonal skills 51 3.98 0.13 0.91
Enrichment in knowledge 51 4.04 0.10 0.69
Improvement in communication
skills 51 4.14 0.11 0.78
Motivation towards entrepreneurial
activities 51 3.92 0.10 0.72
Source: Primary Data (calculation done by Data analysis)

VII. Findings: hands on learning which suit their learning needs.

MOOCs enabled them to engage meaningfully,
1. Maximum respondents are female as interact with others and receive immediate
compared to male. feedback which has enabled them to improve
2. The major source of information to their practice.
students regarding MOOC is
Teacher/Mentor. References
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 International Journal of Commerce and Management Studies (IJCAMS)
Volume 6, Issue 1; ISSN 2456-3684
www.ijcams.com
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