ERIC Number: EJ1174074
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Feb
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1492-3831
EISSN: N/A
Decision, Implementation, and Confirmation: Experiences of Instructors behind Tourism and Hospitality MOOCs
Lin, Jingjing; Cantoni, Lorenzo
International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, v19 n1 p1-4, 279-293 Feb 2018
As the popularity of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) continues to grow, studies are emerging to investigate various topics in this area. Most have focused on the learners' perspective, leaving a gap in the literature about MOOC instructors. The current research--conducted in the field of tourism and hospitality--explored early experiences of MOOC instructors as they progressed through three stages of the innovation-decision process: decision, implementation, and confirmation. The tourism and hospitality field was chosen because its related industries contribute significantly to global employment, and training is one of their critical success factors. MOOCs possess a good potential to benefit tourism and hospitality education, yet tourism and hospitality MOOCs are under-researched. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six instructors who offered tourism and hospitality MOOCs between 2008 and 2015. Findings revealed that: (1) the instructors' decisions to offer MOOCs were mostly influenced by their institutes' interests in MOOCs; (2) when the instructors implemented MOOCs, a pattern of action emerged, which included six phases and one cross-phase element--prepare, design, develop, launch, deliver, and evaluate--and across phases--support and train; (3) most instructors chose to avoid risk in their adoption and implementation of the MOOCs, staying away from innovative teaching or learning activities such as peer-review assessments and collaborative activities; and (4) half of the instructors intended to repeat the experience of teaching in the MOOCs format in the future.
Descriptors: Online Courses, Large Group Instruction, Tourism, Hospitality Occupations, Innovation, Educational Technology, Technology Uses in Education, Higher Education, Learning Theories, Social Networks, College Faculty, Technology Integration, Teacher Attitudes, Semi Structured Interviews, Program Development, Program Implementation, Program Evaluation
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A