MOOC: A higher education game changer in

developing countries 

Dr. Kulari Lokuge Dona, Amali Warusavitarana, Harshani Piyathilake, Dilani Epitawela & Madhawi Edirisinghe

Introduction

Map of Sri Lanka and its education nature would be good?

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Analyse the impact of MOOCs on developing countries

Challenges

Opportunities

The use of MOOCs specifically within Sri Lankan Higher Education Institutions

Objectives

Online ethnography design - studying the MOOC culture and communities

Participated and observed different MOOCs

Coursera, Udacity, and CourseSites

Participated in the Carpe Diem MOOC (Swinburne, 2014; CourseSites, 2014)

Research Methodology

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Research Methodology

Interviews

Themes

Questionnaire

Key researcher’s autoethnographic insights

Secondary researchers’ insights

Literature

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Data collection

Online questionnaire

Paper based questionnaire

Semi-structured interviews

Autoethnographic insights – Personal Learning Journals

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Data Collection

The sample

Consisted of 75 educators

40 educators - online questionnaire

35 educators - paper based questionaire

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Data Analysis

Quantitative data was analysed through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16

Pearsons correlation was used to determine the relationship between the identified variables

Responses to the open-ended questions in the questionnaire were analysed qualitatively along with the interview data

A team of 10 SLIATE academics took part in the Carpe Diem MOOC

SLIATE participants found: Change of course Design Change of course Delivery Comparison to the established lecturing style

New landscape for SLIATE staff

Opportunities for the Sri Lankan higher education

sector  

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Opportunities for the Sri Lankan higher education

sector

86% - of the research participants indicated “MOOCs were a great innovation as they enabled learning without time zone and locality restrictions”

83% - higher education professionals “MOOCs to be a great opportunity to access the latest learning resources and the most up-to-date developments in the subject area”

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Research Findings

Applied MOOC knowledge;

Developing and studying the courses 25%

Learning and delivery in their respective institutes 12%

Out of the research participants

teaching practices 56%

professional development- 86%

wish to apply MOOC in a new teaching approach 87%

suitable for higher education 83%

practical when applying to study in the higher education 87%

MOOCs useful 86%

Identified Challenges

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Provide better technical facilities to the participants to reap benefits of the free open online courses

Provide technical and professional support to up-skill staff

Gather detail information about different aspects of staff needs

Utilize MOOCs to up-skill staff

Create opportunities and change higher education industry.

Recommendations

Contact details: Dr. Kulari Lokuge Dona klokugedona@swin.edu.au

Thank you!

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Research Methodology

55% of the educators filled the online questionnaire during the expected time frame.

90% returned the paper basedquestionnaires, having answered all the questions.

After collecting the responses themes were identified for interviews. Interviews were carried out with 20% of the respondents. 42% of the respondents had experience of participating in

MOOCs.

Identified Challenges