The importance of teacher's presence and engagement in MOOC learning environment: A case study

MOOC has progressively obtained its popularity in the past few years and it showed a big movement in higher education in Malaysia. With the emergence of MOOCs, the educational world is becoming flat and classrooms can now be borderless. The main objective for this study is to explore the learning process and perception of students in using MOOC as part of their module and to identify issues faced when using MOOC. The researchers are also interested to find the importance of teacher's presence in the MOOC environment. The 4-stage online presence (4-SOP) model was used as a theoretical framework to develop the focus group question and as an explorative investigation to student's acceptance of learning in a MOOC. A follow up research using questionnaire was used to investigate student's perceptions of MOOC and the importance of teacher presence on the MOOC provided by the university. This study involves a total of 66 students. Results have indicated that teaching presence, training and support, interesting learning contents, consistent feedback and interaction among facilitators are crucial to sustain the engagement of students in using the online technologies. Lastly, the objectives and benefits of MOOCs should be clarified before students start to use MOOCs so that the students can achieve their learning goals easily.