Abstract:

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have received much attention in the past recent years. Yet, there has been a lack of research conducted to study the design of learning materials and tasks of MOOCs. Moreover, there are limited research that focus on implementing transdisciplinary learning via MOOCs. Thus, in filling theses gaps, the study investigates the design of learning materials and tasks of MOOCs that integrates transdisciplinary learning as the instructional design approach. A case study is conducted in a MOOC of the Malaysia MOOCs initative which is a collaboration between the Ministry of Education Malaysia with 20 public universities. This study uses a quantitative approach in data collection and analysis, in which online surveys are used. The participants of the MOOC are 104 undergraduates studying ethnic relations at a local university.

The factors of MOOC learning materials that are investigated are: (i) type of MOOC, (ii) type of video lectures, (iii) integration of cultural aspects in video lectures, (iv) communication style in video lectures; and (v) humor effect in video lectures. Meanwhile, the factors for design of MOOC learning tasks are: (i) structure of learning tasks; (ii) dialog in learning tasks; (iii) learner autonomy in learning tasks; (iv) social settings of learning tasks; and (v) transactional distance of learning tasks.

The findings are discussed based on these factors and conclusions, implications, and future directions are drawn.

Keywords:

Massive open online courses, MOOC learning perception, MOOC learning material, MOOC learning task.