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ITSE
18,3 “COVID-19 and students
perception about MOOCs” a case
of Indian higher educational
450 institutions
Received 8 July 2020 Manivannan Anand Shankar Raja
Revised 3 September 2020
27 October 2020
Department of Commerce, Christ University, Bangalore, India, and
Accepted 3 November 2020
Tomy K. Kallarakal
School of Commerce, Finance and Accountancy, Christ University,
Bangalore, India

Interactive Technology and Smart
Education
Vol. 18 No. 3, 2021
pp. 450-474
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1741-5659
DOI 10.1108/ITSE-07-2020-0106
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the outcomes of Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs) in the light of COVID-19 concerning the students of higher educational institutions (HEIs) in India.
The COVID-19 has disrupted the normal teaching-learning role across the world and has put everyone in a
nightmare. HEIs are now requesting students to take up MOOCs to explore and attain knowledge and the
same is even followed by the corporate institutions. MOOCs are one of the crisis management solutions to
ensure that education is continuous and not disrupted.
Design/methodology/approach – The data included in this research has been collected from students
of HEIs across India using a convenient sampling method. The collected data was exposed to a factor analysis
using a principal component analysis (PCA) technique to reduce multiple dimensions.
Findings – The various stakeholders such as the government, HEIs and the MOOC providers have to play a
crucial role in developing intellectual human assets for the nation’s growth and progression by extending
flexible and cost-effective learning facilities. Education should be free to boost up the learning motivation, and
hence it is the responsibility of the stakeholders to provide few courses free of cost, which will increase the
rate of enrolment and student participation.
Research limitations/implications – From the research, it is well understood that MOOCs are useful
to keep oneself updated with the market and industry trends especially when the world is focusing on
business analytics, artificial intelligence and other technologically driven topics and concepts.
Practical implications – The present study contributes to the growing body of evidence that MOOCs play
an important role in providing flexibility in learning. In the future, if there are similar crisis, which will disrupt
education, then the best alternative will be MOOC through which many stakeholders will benefit. Education
should be free to boost up the learning motivation, and hence it is the responsibility of the stakeholders to provide
few courses free of cost, which will increase the rate of enrolment and student participation.
Social implications – Education is a service for the society which will have a long-term positive impact
on improving the standard of living of the people. Hence, MOOCs can be one of the educational elements to
provide learning opportunities to all age groups.
Originality/value – This study has explored the perception of MOOCs among the students of HEIs in
India in the COVID-19 pandemic. The fresh data collected from the students is a reflection of their experiences
during the COVID-19 lockdown. Indeed, it is quite surprising to know that majority of the respondents have
arranged to learn during the pandemic, which shows the thirst and urge to learn. Digital technology and tools
are welcomed and accepted by the student community.
Keywords Covid-19, Massive open online courses MOOCs, Student community,
Higher education institutions, Flexibility in learning, Expensive courses
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction Students
MOOCs, “the massive open online course” has gained world recognition in the recent past perception
and are called connective knowledge according to (Siemens, 2012). Many platforms, which
offer MOOCs such as Coursera (Bates, 2012), Udemy (Udemy, 2012), edX (Edx, 2015) are
about MOOCs
responsible for providing learner-centric courses on a mass scale, where the enrolment is
from across the globe. These MOOCs provide an opportunity for anyone to make use of the
collective resources to acquire knowledge and grow in personal life and professional life.
The success of MOOCs is because people have started to give importance to modularized 451
online learning and they look forward to receiving quality education through the open-
source platform to plan their career in a better way (De Freitas et al., 2015). MOOC’S are very
useful for those who are working but still have the urge and interest to learn. Various factors
such as quality education, flexibility, open-source materials, video lecturing, discussion
forums, user experience, brand image, collaboration with top universities of the world have
been major reasons for the success of MOOC (Gamage et al., 2015). Moreover, those who
enroll with MOOC’s have better self-regulatory learning skills and take up learning with
discipline. MOOC’s aims to provide people with opportunities for personal growth and
intellectual growth (Davis et al., 2018), (Davis et al., 2017). The BOOC “the big open online
course” is just like the MOOC but has limited materials and limited enrolment. MOOCs are
about a larger audience whereas BOOCs is restricted to the target audience, and hence
MOOCs have gained more popularity when compared with BOOCs. MOOC is a holistic and
hybrid platform to learn, as it is inclusive of e-learning, e-education and online training.
Hence, one of the most preferred online learning methods is “MOOC”. Highlighting the
importance of MOOC, this research considers MOOCs in the light of the COVID-19
pandemic from the student’s perspective. MOOCs being a recent change element in the
educational sector have also been criticized and is said to have many discrepancies. An
article published in “The International Journal of Educational Management” highlighted
that, MOOCs are not suitable for accredited prior learning but a good alternative for the
students learning and development (Annabi and Wilkins, 2016). We all know and have
experienced the change in the Higher Education in the recent past from March 2020 after the
outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Right from the normal lecturing classes, summer
internship, events and fest, entertainment and cultural programmes have gone online.
Moreover, researchers have made use of this time to explore new courses related to
“research materials and methods”. The nature of courses available in the MOOC platform is
very attractive gaining the attention of various classes of people. However, the present
situation has forced educational institutions to close down and to instruct the students to
enhance knowledge through the online platform (J. Kaiser, 2020), (Mahase, 2020), (Bayham
and Fenichel, 2020), (Viner et al., 2020). Due to the lockdown, the students and faculty
members are making use of the online platform, which offers an array of different MOOCs
from different fields of studies (Bowen, 2020), (Zhou et al., 2020). Though MOOCs are
expensive and are aiding those with greater socioeconomic resources (Hansen and Reich,
2015a), the importance has been understood and enrolment has increased from across
different classes of people after the outbreak of the CORONA Virus scam. The health crisis
has also allowed the students to look into the flexible learning options, where they get to
know various available courses, which can be accessed by them, based on their area of
interest and motivation to learn. Moreover, the online platform offering various certificate
courses have a higher reputation, as they have been recognized by the top popular
institutions in the higher education sector of the world (Dumford and Miller, 2018), (Jeffrey
et al., 2014). Students, teachers and the corporate professionals for personal and career
development now explore MOOCs very actively and this has brought a transformation in
ITSE the educational sector (Viswanathan, 2012).Also, the learning environment which is based
18,3 on the cloud network has a flexible schedule comforting the learners (Katz, 2008), (Krelja
Kurelovic et al., 2013), (Tashkandi and Al-Jabri, 2015), (Yousafzai et al., 2016). When
compared with the traditional classes offered by HEIs, the MOOCs are multidisciplinary and
there are more choices, from which the individual can handpick a specific course without
any restrictions (Betts et al., 2013), (Banks and Meinert, 2016). This self-paced learning will
452 also give a wonderful opportunity to search for interesting courses and programmes making
use of the World Wide Web and the internet facilities. Once when the individual finishes the
MOOC he/she earns a certificate, which is added to the curriculum vitae under the tag
“achievements and rewards”. There are a few courses, which are more practical as per the
expectations of the 2 K students. For example, the business analytical course, which is in the
recent industrial metamorphosis and the most preferred course by the student community.
Industries expect new skills and professional ethics from the candidates and these courses
will be able to add values to the student profile. However, the online platforms, which are
offering a wide array of MOOCs, have been collaborating with the world’s top institutions,
which enhance the brand image of the course. Moreover, the MOOC fees are affordable, and
hence it motivates the student community to get them enrolled (Wang et al., 2013). With the
advancement of information technology, MOOCs are even offered through mobile
applications, which can be easily accessed by those exploring them. Some students do not
look into the online courses just for the sake of career advancement, but to learn to unlearn
and relearn. Moreover, the MOOCs are very flexible and very effective where the people who
are enrolling in these courses can manage their personal life and academic life by striking a
perfect balance between both, says (Dumford and Miller, 2018), (Ke and Xie, 2009).On the
other hand, there are also many grey areas of MOOCs, which are to be deeply explored.
MOOCs are one of the reasons for increased knowledge disparity when considering the
social status of the student community. Because in a country like India not all the students
are well equipped with laptops, mobile phones, internet connection and other technological
devices to learn through MOOCs. The rural background in India is still not aware of such an
opportunity to peruse education through the online mode and this is because of the lack of
awareness and no much exposure to technology. If MOOCs are an effort to transform, the
traditional classroom-based learning experience then the applicability should be extended to
everyone without any bias. Digital modes are cheaper, more easily accessible, interactive
and offer flexibility in learning is an accepted truth. However, the applicability of MOOC
facilitates only those who know about it and there are millions of marginalized communities
in India who only dream about education. Apart from this, MOOCs have other issues related
to high course fees, no transparency in evaluation pattern, dependency on internet and
technology, absence of face-to-face interaction etc. Despite all these issues and challenges,
the students have been requested by the educational institutions to undergo MOOC
certification. Moreover, the students would feel bad and question their income status if they
do not have the basic facilities and income to explore MOOCs. Ultimately, this leads to a
psychological issue related to the poor socioeconomic status considering the financial
dependence and depressive syndrome (Eaton et al., 2001), (Oliver-Quetglas et al., 2013),
(Thapar et al., 2012), (Lorant et al., 2003). Though there are many modes of online education,
in this research we have tried to study the perspectives of the student community on the
MOOCs and its outcome in light of COVID-19. Learning is to learn where everyone is
involved says (Kools and Stoll, 2016). The purpose of education is to facilitate knowledge
services with a holistic view. Educational institutions should be learning organizations
actively bringing in new changes by being more agile. One of the agility factors is online
education embracing MOOCs embracing the rich spread of knowledge. The majority of the
educational institutions have now realized the need for online education in the pandemic Students
crisis. In the post COVID-19, pandemic new agile models have to be framed and perception
implemented for sustainability. Learning organizations are also the smart organizations,
which will experiment and actively get involved in quick knowledge sharing process. Thus,
about MOOCs
MOOCs can be one of the elements, which will fulfil the service goal of educational
institutions.

2. Research questions
453
RQ1. What is the status of the Indian Higher Education (IHE) system in the light of the
COVID-19 pandemic?
RQ2. Why MOOCs are expensive and will, it lead to educational inequality and
disparity considering the socio-economic factors?
RQ3. How can the Government of India contribute towards the sustainable
development goal by bringing in inclusive education?
RQ4. Will the student’s community prefer MOOCs because of its flexibility and
richness in its knowledge content?
RQ5. What will happen to the future educational system in India? Will the same
inequality continue or will it reduce?
RQ6. Why are MOOCs forced on the student community in the pandemic crisis?
RQ7. Will there be any negative impact on the student’s psychological health due to
MOOCs?
RQ8. Are there any major learning differences pertaining to live teaching methodology
vs stored videos in the repository?
RQ9. Will the Ministry of Education build an open-source repository to help society
get actively involved in learning and embracing the creation of a knowledge
economy?
RQ10: Will MOOCs be a free open source in the future developing human assets for
economic development and growth in the future?
RQ11: Can Organizations, striving for excellence, give importance to MOOCs?

3. Problem statement
The COVID-19 pandemic is also an economic crisis, which has disrupted the normal
economic activities of a nation. The policies framed by the central government of any nation
in the pandemic crisis should not be just a fad but a long-lasting policy, which can transform
the nation for betterment. Though the educational institutions knew about the MOOCs and
their use much before, it was not given much priority until the outbreak of the COVID-19
pandemic. As the pandemic is dominating the predominant service sector “the education
industry”, affecting millions of students, the importance of MOOCs has arisen. With no
previous exposure and experience, the students are now taking efforts to enroll with MOOCs
to explore and gain knowledge or even to continue with their daily learning process without
any disruptions. Especially for India, this is a very new scenario to embrace mass MOOC
enrolment. However, the online platforms offering MOOC like Coursera have seen mass
enrolment, which is now advancing the current job opportunities for the student community
ITSE (Christensen et al., 2014), (Perna et al., 2014), (Taneja and Goel, 2014). E-learning will give
18,3 more scope to learn with more flexibility and will attract more students to learn and benefit
from it. There is a need to sustain in crisis, and hence MOOCs are the facilitating agents in
helping the students peruse their education without any disruptions. The educational
system in the USA and a few other countries have been criticized because it is very abrupt
and expensive. New unexpected policies, which are quite vague and have no future impact
454 on the knowledge economy have been put into implementation and hold no values.
Moreover, MOOCs will not navigate in the right direction until and unless a person explores
various courses to realize the area of interest (Kasturirangan, 2020). Just because MOOCs
have plenty of courses, a person cannot develop a sudden urge to learn and grow. It purely
depends on interest, passion, influence and capacity to spend. However, at present, it is very
difficult to trace the outcome of MOOCs in terms of it being preferred or being criticized by
the student community. Hence, there is a very strong need to understand the student’s
perceptions about their experiences with MOOCs based on which further decisions can be
taken by the ministry of education to frame policies of online education. India is a low-
middle income nation where education is still a dream for millions of people who are
marginalized. MOOCs though have many advantages there are equal disadvantages, which
have to be explored to understand reality. Thus, in this research, the objective is to check the
outcome of MOOCs in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. Scope of the study and significance

The scope of the study is restricted to Indian higher education institution (HEI’s) and the
student community who are at present making use of the MOOCs have been considered for
collecting the data. Keeping the present scenario in mind, the Indian HEIs have now
motivated and guided the students to take MOOCs. Few prestigious private institutions in
the country have officially collaborated with the online education platforms and have
provided the opportunity for the students to take up free courses and make the best use of
the same. To support this (Jeff Maggioncalda, 2019) says that Coursera has worked with 170
best universities in the world in providing the students with job-relevant learning and
credentials. Likewise, there are many other online platforms such as Udemy, Alison, Google
Digital Garage, Oxford Home Study, Open learning, Microsoft Learn, Pluralsight, Facebook
Blueprint, Free Code Camp and many others are providing certificate courses (Lewis
Keegan, 2019). Thus, the scope is restricted to those who are making use of MOOCs to
engage themselves in knowledge acquisition during the pandemic time. In this research, we
have not much explored the demographic factors because it is well understood that
demographic factors will have an influence on student’s behaviour concerning MOOCs. For
a country like India, certain factors such as income level, family size, region, area of
residence, language play a major role and have a very strong influence on students enrolling
in MOOC’S. If explored there might be matters subjected to discrimination, and hence
demographic factors have not been considered in this research article. Henceforth, the scope
of the study is restricted to student’s perceptions with regard to MOOCs in the COVID-19
pandemic.

5. Research methodology
In this research primary data has also been collected to get the fresh-hand information from
the respondents (n = 351) using a convenient sampling method. The data collection period
was for a month spanning from (1st May to 5th June) 2020 and, as this is a very short
duration, exclusive data could not be collected. Ayyoubzadeh et al. (2020), conducted
research on Predicting COVID-19 incidence using Google Trends and data mining
techniques and the data was collected within a given time frame of two months. Nachimuthu Students
et al. (2020), researched “coping with diabetes during the COVID – 19 lockdowns in India: perception
results of an online pilot survey” where the data was collected within a given timeframe.
Therefore, in this research, we have also considered a given timeframe to capture the data
about MOOCs
from respondents. Moreover, this is a pre-pilot study to know how the COVID-19 crisis has
an impact on the MOOCs among the student community. The data was collected using a
survey questionnaire, which has 28 statements where (1–14 statements) are related to
positive outcomes and (15–28 statements) are pertaining to negative outcomes of MOOCs. 455
Each question statement was framed after the critical analysis of the literature reviews to
seek authenticity and transparency in the data collection process. The data was collected
using an online survey because in the COVID-19 pandemic it is not possible to receive
personal responses and moreover the survey was sent to those who are actively taking up
MOOCs i.e. the ones who have exposure to digital education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Not every respondent will have the same perception towards the MOOCs, and hence a
Likert’s five-point scale was used to receive a spread of various responses. The scaling
options used to collect the data are (1) strongly disagree; (2) disagree; (3) neither agree nor
disagree; (4) agree; (5) strongly agree.

6. Theoretical underpinning
The introduction of MOOCs should not be understood only from the pandemic viewpoint
but to analyse and forecast the long-term benefits. MOOCs being digital repository are a
flexible learning structure facilitating a huge mass of people. Though the need for MOOCs
has been understood only during the pandemic time there are few areas, which can be
considered to be highly useful by the educational institutions in the post-COVID-19
pandemic in restructuring their educational policies. The educational institutions are
adopting the corporate managerial models, which might increase the standards of the
institutions and can help them become a learning organization. The Learning Organization
style will give equal opportunities to everyone in the organization to learn and enrich
knowledge. Learning Organization has to be understood from a broad perspective, and
hence it is important to exhume the knowledge within the study philosophy. Let us consider
the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted learning across the globe. Nevertheless, few
educational institutions, which had the basic financial and technical facilities shifted to
cloud based learning and signed MOU with MOOC providers, which helped the student
community to make the best use of offline educational services. This is where the role of an
organization to be flexible in adapting to the new changes and always having the fitness to
be a learning organization has to be understood. Theoretical underpinning gives an
opportunity to connect with the present knowledge and to articulate the assumptions arising
from the deep theoretical reviews, which will help to explore new relationships. The concept
of learning stems from other disciplines such as cognitivism, behaviourism, constructivism,
humanism and connectivism. Hence, there is a need to explore the relative theories, which
will strengthen the knowledge to give a logical and acceptable justification for the study
rationale. The basic philosophy for any educational institution is to provide the best service
to society, which boosts the employment opportunities and the economic progression of a
nation. In this regard, the human capital counts for a nation’s wealth, and hence
organizations have to develop the individuals’ learning capacity and contribute to society
(Hanushek and Wößmann, 2014). The development of a nation is not only to attain economic
status but also to build a good workforce (Cheng et al., 2018). This is more suitable for a LO
because these institutions look forward to reskilling the employee ability through employer-
informed curricula and work-based learning. One of the most important which we would
ITSE like to place here is that the future is going to be dominated by online education where
18,3 traditional classroom structure may not be much appreciated. The digital education
platforms will extend services in educating a wide mass of people and will help the economy
grow by producing and shaping better human assets. The Human Capital Theory developed
by Gary Becker (1930–2014) plays an important role here, which supports the fact that the
human assets have to be made the best use for the benefit of the organization’s growth. The
456 philosophy by (Becker, 1962), “the economic approach to human behaviour”, with an idea
that educating the workforce can bring benefits to the organizations and, as well as the
human assets personal growth and development which enhances the economy in the longer
run. There will be many opposing employees in an organization when the management
decides to introduce LO as execution criteria. The investment in human capital does not
mean that social inequalities will be avoided (Checchi, 2006), but there are possibilities of a
better standard of living (Clark, 2005). Organizations have to keep in mind that there are
dual goals to be achieved through the implementation of LO in HEI’s. These organizations
as LO will contribute to the economic development of the nation in the second stage it
enhances productivity (Baumol and Becker, 1978). Learning Organization is a strategic
decision, which has to be executed with the utmost care and diligence. Learning
Organization Theory and Human Capital Theory is the right combination to enhance
success for an educational institution. Educational institutions calling it to be a Learning
Organization will have to give importance to digital education (MOOCs) because it is more
flexible than the traditional learning method and widely preferred. Apart from depending on
the MOOC providers, educational institutions have to develop their own MOOCs to facilitate
wide educational services.

7. Review of literature
For this research, we relied on well-cited research articles published in reputed journal
databases and good white papers. Many organizations such as KPMG, McKinsey, PwC,
Ernst and young provide insightful documents, which provide extensive knowledge. In this
regard, we have also collected secondary data from white reports published by few reputed
firms, which provided information on online classes in the COVID-19 pandemic, educational
institutions’ future, a road map for educational quality in post-COVID-19, etc. In this
research, the inclusion criteria were strictly followed before proceeding with the literature
reviews. For the exclusion criteria, we have not considered old articles, which are not
relevant, Traditional teaching and learning and technical reports and articles distance
learning. Thus, we were able to maintain a keen focus.

7.1 Massive open online course in the educational transformation “general perspective”
MOOCs have been considered as a flexible and most preferred way of knowledge
acquisition especially after the mass usage of information technology across the globe. The
future generations “Gen Beta and Gama” will be expected to take their primary education
only in the online platforms because of the exposure in using technology. The working
people also prefer MOOCs as it keeps them updated and helps them enhance their
professional qualification. To know the overall application of MOOCs in the light of
educational transformation, we have reviewed a few articles, which are presented below.

7.2 Review of literature “massive open online course in India”

MOOCs in India is just mushrooming especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though
the usage of MOOCs in India showed, a positive curve in the past in the pandemic time the
curve is manic with quick growth. Educational institutions have provided an opportunity
for their students and faculty members to make use of MOOCs. Interesting course content, Students
well-designed assignments, informative video recording and transparent evaluation of the perception
assignments have attracted new enrolments. To know the application of MOOCs in India we
have reviewed a few articles, which have been presented below.
about MOOCs

7.3 The massive open online course and its role in the Indian educational system
As the COVID-19 outbreak is very new, there are no sufficient sources available to conduct
an exclusive literature review. Hence, we had to depend on the grey sources (blogs,
457
newspaper articles, magazine write-ups and reports published by private institutions,
government and other individual researchers and scholars) for literature review. Dr Kay
Hack (2020) says that there is a lot of difference between classroom teaching and online
teaching because teachers have a unique style in traditionally sharing knowledge and
students are used to it. When there is a sudden change in the educational sector due to
COVID-19, the only possible option to learn is online education. From above Table 1, it is
understood that MOOCs have brought a massive transformation in the educational
ecosystem. For a country like India, not all the students and teachers are equipped with state
of art infrastructure and technological gadgets to facilitate online learning. However, the
truth is that the epidemic has brought a gap and inequality because few online platforms
providing (MOOCs) are far expensive which are not affordable by many students who
belong to the backward community, which has been highlighted in Table 2. However, the
MOOCs in the online platform is very interesting and attractive, but in reality, it covers only
a few affordable sections of the student community. An author named (Linda Darling-
Hammond, 2020) has mentioned in her article that because the flattening of the curve of
infections of COVID-19 pandemic is through social distancing, the health ministry has
ordered the closure of educational institutions as a safety measure. In this regard, teachers
and parents are scrambling to ensure rich educational services and are enrolling their kids in
online education portals. However, MOOCs are suitable only for those who are doing their
higher education because it needs technical skills and is much supported by self-disciple to
learn and prosper. Many private institutes, bloggers and vloggers are providing free
services by creating awareness on the freely available MOOCs to ensure that anyone who
comes across the content will benefit from it. Mendez (2020) has mentioned an array of
different online courses on their website, which is going to benefit the viewers. However, we
have to understand that, MOOCs have gained more recognition in the recent past and are
benefitting many people across the globe. It is the responsibility of every human being to
know about COVID-19 disease and its impact. In this light, there are many online platforms,
which are providing free certificate courses on COVID-19 epidemic disease. Medvarsity
offers free MOOCs on awareness and management of Covid-19 and many people have
benefited from it says (EH News Bureau, 2020). However, MOOCs are not suitable for many
students due to various reasons it still enhances millions of people to learn and equip them
to fit according to the expectations of the job market.

8. Data analysis and interpretation

The collected data using a survey was exposed to a factor analysis using SPSS Version 25, a
flexible statistical software used by the social science researchers (Qureshi, 2012). Before
proceeding with the factor analysis the reliability of the collected data was checked using
Cronbach’s alpha (Santos, 1999).
The results presented in (Table 3 showing the case-processing summary) gives a clear
picture of the basic reliability test results. The data was collected from (N = 351)
respondents where the data from one respondent was excluded and the remaining was
 18,3

458
ITSE

Table 1.

educational
transformation
Showing MOOC in
Author/year Theme Indicators Description

Almutairi and White (2018) Student engagement in Campus learning, MOOC The blended MOOC course design has four main elements, which help
blended MOOC learning and social the student community to reflect on: higher-order thinking skills,
networking interactive learning, learning strategies and collaborative learning
Ong and Jambulingam (2016) Learning and Organizations develop MOOC will ensure certain benefits to the organization: cost reduction,
development cost in opportunities at a lower audience capacity, global reach, convenience, variety and
MOOC cost complimentary
Wong (2016) Effective teaching of Course development and In the process of course development and implementation, there are
MOOC key considerations for certain factors to be considered such as preparation, attraction,
effective teaching participation, interaction, consolidation and post-course support
Mohamed and Hammond (2018) MOOC content and Benefits of MOOC for The major three key elements are: searching for appropriate courses,
assessment professional development selecting courses in which to participate, observing courses through
participation
Annabi and Wilkins (2016) MOOC’s in transnational Accreditation of prior There is a need for a strict monitoring pattern to maintain
education learning, programme authenticity. Moreover, the educational institutions in the process of
delivery and professional transnational education should think and consultant staff and
development students before the implementation of MOOCs
Höfler et al. (2017) Narrative structures in Instructional design Lack of retention effects should be introspected and the course
instructional MOOC patterns structure can be designed in a better way to ensure that there are no
designs dropouts from MOOCs
Sanders and Taylor (2014) Value of MOOCs Employers’ Perceptions of MOOC and open educational resources offer benefits to different
higher education change stakeholders. The major success reason for MOOC is that is cost-
effective when compared with the educational institutions
A. Chauhan (2014) Growth of MOOC Emerging trends in MOOC is a “smart system” which has an automated process to refine
assessment and and evaluate the assignments which maximize the learning outcome
accreditation
De Freitas et al. (2015) MOOCs transforming Engagement and course MOOC is a change agent in higher education transforming teaching
learning and teaching in retention in online and learning. MOOC plays an important role in stimulating the
higher education learning provision demand for modularised and bite-sized online learning experiences
A. Dhir (2013) What makes a great MOOC and student MOOC is opted by those students who have a strong ability and
MOOC? retention capacity to learn where other students do not use which might be one
reason behind retention
Students (2003) Increasing the success of Evaluating the online
online students environment
(continued)
Author/year
Milligan and Littlejohn (2020)
Kizilcec et al. (2017)
Hansen and Reich (2015b)
Rai and Chunrao (2016)
CONACHE et al. (2016)
Table 1.
Theme Indicators Description
It is important to orient the students about online learning, which can
be done by educational institutions. Orientation can be one of the
factors to increase the success of online education
Supporting professional Research in open and MOOC is very useful in supporting and enabling professional learning,
learning distributed learning formal and informal learning
Self-regulated learning learner behaviour and Individuals who possess self-regulated abilities are greater involved in
strategies goal attainment in the learning process and outperform better than the weaker students
MOOCs
Democratizing education Access and usage MOOC courses are benefiting society but provided there should not be
patterns in MOOC a disparity. Moreover, digital learning resources can focus on
creativity and quality content
General analysis of Success and failure in Students learning success is influenced by the individual personal
learner behaviour MOOC factor rather than the external factors
Shift between traditional MOOC over traditional The life-long learning process and the well-structured course is the
and virtual learning education success behind MOOC
activities
Students
459
about MOOCs
perception
ITSE Author/year Major discussion Key variables
18,3
Malik (2015) In this research, the authors have studied Implementation of CBCS
the features of MOOC from the Indian
perspective. They mention that Indian
MOOCs can have additional subjects, which
are unique such as Indian classical music
460 and dance which are not usually given by
Western Universities. Moreover, MOOCs
play an important role in the
implementation of a smooth choice based
credit system (CBCS)
Puja and Mca (2013) The author has explored the prospects of Development of the youth
MOOC success in India where she mentions community and job
that MOOCs play an important role in opportunities
transforming the face of youth by providing
them learning experience and employment
opportunities on qualification
Li (2017) In this article, the author says that MOOCs Disruptive in the
have disrupted the educational industry educational sector
because of certain features of it such as free
education, unlimited enrolment and
borderless access. In the comparative study
of MOOC between India and China, the
author concludes that MOOCs is not a
“one-size-fits-all” product because it widely
differs based on demographics
J. Chauhan (2017) The author studied the role of MOOC in Implementation
India from a general perspective and says challenges and high
that though the US dominates the MOOC growth
market India has taken efforts to introduce
portals to spread the applicability of MOOC
through platforms such as SWAYAM and
NPTEL. Though there are issues in
implementation, India has witnessed a
massive growth
Trehan et al. (2017) Explored the critical discussions on MOOCs Improvement in quality
in India and China and have stated that content and features
there are certain elements, which have to be
improved. Few elements to be enhanced are
sound design, quality and accessible
delivery, multi-lingual facilitation and
efficient regulation of MOOC-credits
Haumin and Madhusudhan (2019) The authors have deeply studied the Lack of infrastructural
various elements of MOOCs from the Indian facilities
perspective and have suggested that
MOOCs will be successful in India only
when there is a growth in infrastructural
facilities. Though MOOCs have a grey side
Table 2. it also helps many students and working
Showing MOOC’s in professionals to gain additional knowledge
India and get a decent job
considered to further process. All the responses received for 28 statements were exposed to Students
reliability tests, which is presented in (Table 4 showing the reliability statistics). The perception
outcome of the reliability test yielded a result of 0.819, which is considered highly reliable.
about MOOCs
9. Factor analysis
The data were tested to prove suitability for structure detection for which the KMO and
Bartlett’s test results are important. From the above table (Tables 5 and 7 showing the test
results of KMO and Bartlett’s) it is understood that the proposition of variance is high and
461
the data is suitable for factor analysis (M. O. Kaiser, 1974), (IBM, 2019). The key output of
the factor analysis is called the Rotated Component results. From the below Table (6 and 8
showing the rotated component matrix) there are two iterations with strong factor loadings.
From the above analysis, pertaining to (Table 6 Rotated Component Matrix of a positive
outcome of MOOCs) it is understood that 14 question statements are divided into two
iterations. The first iteration has seven strong factor loadings and the second iteration has
seven strong factor loadings. There are no weak factor loadings.
From the above analysis, pertaining to (Table 8 Rotated Component Matrix of the
negative outcome of MOOCs) it is understood that 14 question statements are divided into
two iterations. The first iteration has 11 strong factor loadings and the second iteration has
only two strong factor loadings. Q26 is considered a weak factor loading.

9.1 Inference for the factor analysis

Factor analysis is a dimension reduction technique used in research and widely used in
social science research. In this research, there were 28 statements on the COVID-19 situation
out of which 1–14 are related to positive outcomes of MOOCs and 15–28 are related to
negative outcomes of the MOOCs. Each of these question statements is handpicked from
literature reviews, and hence, it gives a complete representation of the current issue. All the
28 statements were first tested for reliability using Cronbach alpha’s test and the result
obtained was 0.816, which is an indication of high reliability and then we proceeded with the

Table 3.
Case-processing summary n (%) Showing the case
processing summary
Cases Valid 350 99.7
Excluded 1 0.3 (COVID-19 and
Total 351 100.0 MOOCs positive
outcome and
Note: aListwise deletion is based on all variables in the procedure negative outcome)

Cronbach’s alpha No. of items Table 4.

Showing the
0.819 28 reliability statistics

Table 5.
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0.938
KMO and Bartlett’s
Bartlett’s test of sphericity Approx. Chi-square 2,149.947 test (COVID-19 and
df 91 MOOCs positive
Sig. 0.000 outcome)
ITSE Component
18,3 1 2

Q5 0.747 0.099
Q2 0.714 0.319
Q3 0.696 0.296
Q6 0.653 0.325
462 Q4 0.626 0.460
Q7 0.625 0.409
Q1 0.593 0.198
Q11 0.211 0.758
Q10 0.267 0.755
Q14 0.198 0.739
Q12 0.252 0.619
Q9 0.493 0.589
Table 6. Q8 0.475 0.534
Q13 0.401 0.453
Rotated component Extraction method: principal component analysis
matrixa (COVID-19 Rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalization
and MOOCs positive
outcome) Note: aRotation converged in three iterations

Table 7.
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0.905
KMO and Bartlett’s
test (COVID-19 and Bartlett’s test of sphericity Approx. Chi-square 1,905.667
MOOCs negative df 91
outcome) Sig. 0.000

Component
1 2

Q19 0.750
0.015

Q17 0.728 0.162
Q18 0.718 0.125
Q20 0.718 0.190
Q16 0.692 0.178
Q21 0.680 0.249
Q15 0.675 0.041
Q28 0.643 0.181
Q25 0.599 0.350
Q23 0.587 0.235
Q27 0.506 0.484
Q26 0.454 0.293
Table 8. Q24 0.088 0.848
Q22 0.123 0.839
Rotated component Extraction method: principal component analysis
matrixa (COVID-19 Rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalization
and MOOCs negative
outcome) Note: aRotation converged in three iterations
factor analysis. The factors after the Rotated Component Analysis was clubbed and suitable Students
names are given as follows in (Table 9). perception
Many educational institutions are closing and have recently merged to cope up with
the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this situation, the majority of the students
about MOOCs
have experienced online learning. Educational institutions have not been flexible
enough to understand the demographic background of the vast student community.
Not every student is bestowed with technology and internet connection to take
undisrupted learning especially in growing countries (Touche and Limited, 2020). The 463
educational ecosystem in developing countries has to bring in equal education as one
of the major reforms linking it with economic growth planning. These robust
management plans by higher educational institutions (HEIs) will help in reshaping
education in the post-COVID-19 pandemic (Covid et al., 2020), (Covid et al., 2020;
Jeffery, 2020). Planning and implementation of new educational policies to bring in
online education will take a few years. For the present pandemic crisis, the educational
institutions can sign MOU with online platforms providing free MOOCs, which will be
the need for the hour help. These MOOCs can also be segmented for secondary school
education, Higher secondary school education, Undergraduate and postgraduate
education. This basic segmentation will help to provide holistic educational services to
all age groups. MOOCs ranging from simple and basic education until the technical
and high-phased educational courses can be newly designed. This will reduce the
stress of the MOOC explorers as they will have more options and will have clarity
based on their area of interest. At the same time, the government and ministry of
education of a concerned nation can allocate special funds for raising standards of
MOOCs and help educational institutions function without any disruptions in the
learning process. Private firms such as KPMG, McKinsey, PwC, Ernst and young can
offer certificate courses and MOOCs for students, which can be a corporate social
responsibility (CSR). Thus, there are many ways to build a better educational
ecosystem, however; it depends on the country, government, educational institutions
and the policymakers to reconsider the need and importance.

10. Discussion
Due to the COVID-19 situation, educational institutions have been forced to switch to online
mode by suspending the traditional classroom and have switched to the online mode. These
online platforms provide certificates as a token of achievement, which adds value to their
profile, as it is endorsed by reputed partner universities. In the COVID-19 health crisis, most
of the corporate firms have asked their employees to benefit from these courses and are
inculcating continuous learning. Corporate employees also accept these challenges and
explore new aspects of knowledge because, learning is now slowly accepted as the currency
of survival says (P. m. Senge, 1997) Peter Senge who has coined the term “learning
organization”. He has rightly pointed out that, new patterns and thinking are nurtured when
a person starts to explore new knowledge (P. M. Senge, 1993). Given an opportunity, the
student community will make the best use of the available resources. Rodriguez (2012), says
that in the fall of 2011 University of Stanford offered free and online MOOC which attracted

MOOCs and positive outcome Opportunity to learn and explore (component 1)

Flexibility in learning (component 2) Table 9.
MOOCs and negative outcome Stress and depression (component 3) Showing the factor
Technical issues (component 4) clubbing
ITSE 160,000 registered students. From the analysis (Descriptive statistics), it was understood
18,3 that the student community prefers these certificate courses in the online platform because
of the flexibility which allowed them to plan study time, based on their convenience (35.0%).
For a country like India, where few students belonging to the backward community, have to
play a dual role of working and studying which is not possible most of the time. To avoid
such a situation the students can take online courses and even complete entire degrees while
464 working which will benefit them and their family members (30.3%). The major
disadvantage is that there is no scope to clear doubts, as there is no face-to-face interaction
with the faculty member in the online platform (37.1%). Moreover, another major drawback
is that (38.9%) of the respondents have stated that MOOCs are beyond their financial
constraint. Besides, (50 %) of the respondents have stated that online courses have become
quite difficult due to power cuts and technological glitches. Overall, the student community
has accepted the MOOCs, as they benefit from it. These MOOCs provide many benefits to
the student community and at the same time, it has some disadvantages. In the longer run, it
helps to spread education wide across the nation with the help of technology and the
internet, which might have a positive result in the end. In the post-COVID-19, pandemic
educational institutions can frame didactic MOOC design, which will be a helpful knowledge
resource. Indeed, MOOCs can be planned for various stakeholders. Educational institutions
should extend their services to society as a whole.

11. Online education due to COVID-19 and its impact on the economy
The COVID-19 has created an opportunity for everyone in the academic community to learn
how to make the best use of the available online resources for personal growth and
contribution to the economy as well. Through E-learning is already in practice, teachers and
students are adapting to e-learning along with the traditional way of learning because of its
advantages and positive outcomes (S. K. Dhir et al., 2017). The following education workers
line up as benefitting stakeholders; HEI, student community, faculty members, research
scholars, administrators, etc. Who helps in progressive development (Volery and Lord,
2000). Few useful certificate courses (MOOC), teach the real skills needed for the industry
such as psychological skills, people’s skills, communication skills and behavioural ethics
that has been widely offered by top institutions of the world (Haggard et al., 2013). These
courses add more values to the present generation creating a knowledge economy because
MOOCs are well designed considering the quality (Margaryan et al., 2015). In the recent
time, MOOC’s have challenged the traditional courses (Mazoue, 2013), as it creates wide
opportunities by widening the participation in a global level (Terras and Ramsay, 2015),
(Hone and El Said, 2016). These skills and knowledge gained through these online courses
will add value to the resume, helping the younger generation to fetch good professional
opportunities (Shen and Kuo, 2015), (Tu and Sujo-Montes, 2014). This is the time where the
teachers, students and educational institutions should understand the importance of online
education and positive outcomes. Education is always a goal by itself, given the importance
of the growth of society and the economy. Economic development is measured in terms of
many factors such as growth in GDP, Per capita income, rural development,
industrialization, unemployment etc. All the variables listed here can be achieved when an
economy is a knowledge economy. The government of India has to take efforts to provide
online education at subsidized form, by having an official memorandum with the HEI’s
which will lead to employability (BROWN et al., 2003).
12. Conclusion Students
MOOCs and other modes of online learning have gained significant importance, not only in perception
the academic world but also even in the corporate world. This modern style of education
facilitating knowledge acquisition has been appreciated and widely accepted due to many
about MOOCs
reasons such as flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Moreover, the world is moving towards
the usage of digital tools and technology and this is the right time to upgrade ourselves to be
tech-savvy. Education is very important and should be a continuous learning process
without any disruptions. In the light of COVID-19, many Edtech platforms are offering an 465
array of courses to cater to different needs of people across the world remarkably the
student community. A dozen countries have taken efforts immediately to ensure that the
educational system flows smoothly without any problems and to name a few the Bhutan
Government has launched the Bhutan e-Learning programme, Colombia has given
importance to “Aprender digital”, a platform of the Ministry of Education with more than
80,000 digital learning resources. Likewise, many countries have come forward to facilitate
online education and learning which is remarkable in academic history. All these platforms
are successful because the student community is making the best use of the available
resources to learn and leap to achieve success. The Virus has accelerated changes in the
educational system and this change has to be taken in the right sense to embrace and grow
by all the associated stakeholders. To our knowledge, this is one of the very studied, which
has explored the role of MOOCs and its usefulness in the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover,
this is a need for the hour as across the globe educational institutions are highly
recommending MOOCs for the students and the faculties. Moreover, corporate organizations
have also started to motivate their employees to be actively enrolled with MOOC’s
cultivating the need for a learning organization. The famous learning organization model
used by the corporate organizations proposed by Peter Senge states the “learning should be
continuous” and should facilitate all the associated stakeholders. Thus, MOOCs should not
be introduced only for the student community but for all the stakeholders with a standard
segmentation. Educational institutions should consider building a quality knowledge
ecosystem and extend its services to society as a whole.

13. The significant contribution of the study

For a country like India, which is not fully developed, education to be facilitated through an
online platform, using technological gadgets is still a dream come true for many
underprivileged children. Technology and the internet will be used by those with higher
education and income and this is an example of digital inequality says (Van Deursen et al.,
2015). However, we have to understand that the future is all about dealing with technology
and how education is delivered is gradually changing by using information communication
technology (ICT) (Assar, 2015). Not only the student community or the teachers are
benefitting from these MOOCs but other working communities are also making use of it. For
example, the social media platform LinkedIn has a pool of community formed through
networking where people share their online course certificates as an achievement to enhance
their visibility. Moreover, the Human Resources managers who are using AI to recruit
through LinkedIn look for extra certifications and licentiates, which create a pathway to
grab the best job opportunities (Laura Brandenburg, CBAP, Founder and CEO, B. the G.,
2019). In today’s competitive world, people have understood the importance of online
education though it has its grey side. Thus, we have looked into the positive and negative
sides of MOOCs in light of COVID-19. From the study, we found that many students prefer
MOOCs because of its various added advantages such as the course content, flexibility to
learn, a wide variety of courses and certification. The educational institutions and the
ITSE government should come forward to start portals that provide online education and
18,3 certificates as a credit course and thereby, it will become a source of motivation, which can
increase the rate of literacy, which will, in turn, add to the growth of the nation. One of the
most significant contributions of the study is to suggest it to the educational institutions to
motivate the students to take up MOOCs as a mandatory credit, as it allows them to study in
a self-paced mode. Self-facilitated education will always teach students the importance of
466 finance, which is spent on education and will motivate them to make better use of the
resources. Moreover, the urge to grab the certificate will be a source of motivation for all
those who are taking up online education. These online platforms always identify the latest
Industrial Trends and then facilitate the MOOCs by incorporating the latest materials and
content. As the content is as per the industrial expectations, it would help the student
community to be more independent and help them learn new concepts, by self-exploring the
various domains as per the expectations and within their comfort zone. Students who wish
to enhance their career opportunities as per the industrial expectations can always look into
some courses, which are not always offered by the educational institutions in the regular
degree programme, but which are available on the online platform. From the study, we
would suggest to all the educational institutions, teachers and the student community that,
success depends on how a person takes hard work with a positive attitude and a clear
mentality. COVID-19 is an opportunity to realize the importance, need and usefulness of
online education and MOOCs. It also will help us prepare in acquiring knowledge by
depending on the latest technology. Few of the key suggestions from this study will include:
 Few platforms offering MOOCs such as LinkedIn Learning, Skillshare, Coursera,
Udemy and Thinkfic provide courses, which are not affordable to the weaker
sections of the students in the country. Thus, there should be a few basic courses,
which can be provided free of cost along with a certificate which will benefit the
student community. Educational platforms should understand the fact that, though
they are aiming to maximize profits they have the responsibility to provide the best
service, which reaches everyone without inequality.
 HEIs can collaborate with the online education platforms to provide certificate
courses for the students and the teachers, which will benefit them in the long run, by
adding value to the knowledge economy (Enache et al., 2011). This knowledge-
driven economy will help in reducing unemployment and create potential skilled
human resources (BROWN et al., 2003).
 HEIs and the Ministry of Education of a country can collectively design courses,
which the central government authorizes, will increase the trust to take-up online
courses. To mention an example, the MOOC platform SWAYAM by the
Government of India is a legacy in the Indian education sector (Kaveri et al., 2017).
More of such recognized platforms will attract more students and teachers to benefit
from, which will have a positive impact in the long run.
 Trust is the primary component that will attract new enrolments. Therefore, online
education platforms providing certificate courses will have to advertise about the
various constructive outcomes rather than just marketing the brand.
 The student community has to have a wider perspective to benefit from online
education. There is a vast difference between traditional classroom education and
online-based education. Those who wish to take MOOCs should understand the
functionality of it and should not compare the same with traditional classroom
teaching.
14. Scope for future research Students
MOOC has grown in leaps and bounds and has universalized education by transforming perception
higher education to be facilitated in online mode. However, the major challenges in MOOC
are to deliver quality education and to reduce the retention rates (De Freitas et al., 2015). As
about MOOCs
MOOC has gained popularity among the urban communities who have started to explore
various courses for growth and development, the limelight of the future research should be
on the rural community and their awareness concerning MOOC and BOOC. The literacy rate
and its impact on the economic prosperity of a nation is a collective phenomenon of rural, 467
urban, and hence future researchers can look forward to researching to spread awareness
about MOOC among the rural communities. Though MOOC and BOOC have been very
popular for the past decade, it has many negative outcomes, which we have discussed in this
research in detail. It, to a certain extent, depends completely on the students’ readiness to
enroll them in the available MOOC, and hence educational institutions have to conduct
studies to analyse the student’s perception and mental preparedness in taking up MOOCs.
However, there are other new types of MOOC called hybrid MOOC (MOOC learner services,
MOOC has open resources, MOOC and flipped classroom, Credit transfer from MOOC, Local
digital prelude, Canned digital learning, MOOC and f2f tutoring, Canned digital teaching
with remote tutoring, etc., which are yet to be explored. Every MOOC platform has
advantages and disadvantages from different angles. For example, there are drawbacks in
the evaluation methods as it lacks transparency, which is a major disadvantage for dropout
rates, which can be explored in the future and a variety of transparent evaluation techniques
about MOOCs can be brought up. The MOOC platform has wide applications and
opportunities and is very rich in knowledge sources. Researchers can explore deeply the
various dimensions and can contribute to the development of MOOCs, to produce
intellectual assets who will be the pillars of the future world.

15. Limitations of the study

There are various forms of online education, e-learning modules and digital learning tools
and technologies enhancing the quality of education. However, in this research, our major
focus was to understand the student’s perceptions of MOOCs. For this purpose, only those
students who have experienced MOOCs have been considered. Hence, the perception is post-
experience of taking up MOOCs. Thus, student’s expectations before enrolment with
MOOCs have not been explored. In consumer psychology, studying the expectations is very
much important. As MOOCs are expensive and not easy for every student to get enrolled the
expectations before enrolment is seen as high with regard to many factors such as course
fees, course content, certificate and nature of assignments. Thus, future researchers can
study the student’s expectations from MOOCs before enrolment and can explore the post-
purchase experience. On the other hand, India is just growing in terms of quality education
and there are millions of children who have been just dreaming about basic education.
Hence, the influence of MOOCs is not on a large population, it is just a small cluster of those
who have the income capacity to take up MOOCs. In this research, we have not explored the
demographic influence on student’s perception and experience with regard to MOOCs.
MOOCs subjected to SDL (Self-Directed-Learning), motivation, which is important, has not
been explored, as it is more into student’s psychology, which can be an individual and
exclusive field of studies. With regard to the theoretical underpinning, future researchers
can develop an exclusive model and theory by conducting the services of experiments. The
research has given importance to primary data and the same has been analysed using
statistical tools. On the other hand, qualitative research on using content analysis to code the
secondary source of data can have not been considered in this research. Overall, this
ITSE research on student’s perception of MOOCs is an initiative to know the experience during
18,3 the COVID-19 pandemic. We have not explored much beyond the scope. Hence, these
limitations can be the scope for future research as mentioned above.

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ANNEXURE (questionnaire) Students
Notes: Question statements pertaining to 1–14 are related to positive outcomes and 15–28 perception
are pertaining to negative outcomes. Each question was framed after understanding the literature
about MOOCs
reviews and gaining wide knowledge about the outcomes of MOOCs. Literature reviews helped the
researchers in the development of the survey instrument. Likert’s five-point scale has been used here
to capture a decent spread of response. Likert’s five-point scaling options are (1) strongly disagree; (2)
disagree; (3) neither agree nor disagree; (4) agree; (5) strongly agree. Future researchers if applicable 473
can use this survey instrument.
 Students listen to lectures and complete assignments sent to them electronically, with no
need to fight traffic, leave early for class, etc. (Q1).
 MOOCs give students the opportunity to plan study time, based on their convenience (Q2)
 Students& professionals can take MOOCs and even complete entire degrees while
working, while in-between jobs or while taking time to raise a family (Q3)
 Flexibility in MOOCs enables students to keep learning which enhances their academic
credentials (Q4)
 To be successful in completing the MOOC one needs honesty and self-discipline, which
are important for any scholar and is considered important for a better life (Q5)
 There is a wide range of courses to select and explore in the online platform, which is an
added advantage (Q6)
 MOOCs will force you outside your comfort zone (in a good way). You will have to learn
to navigate the course lectures, download materials, interact with others online and
communicate well digitally (Q7)
 MOOCs also provides students with the chance to network with peers across nations or
even different continents through the discussion forums (Q8)
 MOOCs can choose anywhere that helps you learn and understand the overall body of
knowledge you need to earn your degree (Q9)
 MOOCs will boost research skills as students are expected to submit innovative and
creative assignments to the course facilitator (Q10)
 MOOCs offer an opportunity to set individual attention, which will help the student
concentrate in a better way and help to be more focused (Q11)
 MOOCs connects even the global rural villages where many students are benefited in
various ways (Q12)
 MOOCs are most cost-effective as it helps students save on another cost such as
transportation cost and accommodation cost (Q13)
 Students will learn how to construct a reasonable and clear response in a MOOCs
discussion forum, which will improve their logical thinking and communication skills
(Q14)
 There is a high academic workload and pressure in MOOC based education (Q15)
 There are high chances of dissatisfaction in MOOCs because most of the time it is one-
way learning (Q16)
 Poor performance in test because there is no scope to clear doubts as there is less face to
face interaction with the teacher in MOOCs (Q17)
 Difficulties in reading and understanding online course modules, as it is very
complicated and overloaded with complicated materials available in the MOOC platform
(Q18)
ITSE  Inability in managing time when it comes to managing personal life and learning in an
18,3 online mode (MOOC) (Q19)
 Unable to concentrate during the lecture, as the environment is not as per the
expectations (Q20)
 Anxieties about performance in the test as there are many modules to pass (Q21)
 Some MOOCs are beyond my financial capability (Q22)
474  Difficulty in meeting deadlines for submission of assignments (Q22)
 MOOCs in various platforms are expensive (Q24)
 I feel worried about coping with my studies due to the lack of technological resources
available to facilitate (Q25)
 There is no opportunity to meet and interact with other students through online
platforms, which are very important for student exposure (Q26)
 Due to other reasons like power cut, technological glitches I miss a few of my online
classes, which becomes a burden (Q27)
 The quality of the instructional materials and recorded videos are not up to expectation
(Q28).

Corresponding author
Manivannan Anand Shankar Raja can be contacted at: anand.shankar@christuniversity.in

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