Instructor outcomes of teaching a STEM MOOC

Despite the remarkable expansion of massive open online courses (MOOCs) over the last decade, the extent to which they achieve their potential as a “disruptive force” in education is questionable, with limited evidence of true impact. There is a wide range of desired outcomes from both learners themselves and those that invest in MOOCs. Therefore, to truly evaluate the effectiveness of a MOOC, it is necessary to understand the needs and goals of all stakeholder groups involved. While some studies have explored these factors for students who take MOOCs and the institutions offering MOOCs, little research has investigated what the instructors who choose to teach advanced science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) MOOCs hope to gain from the experience. In order to inform this component of a contextual evaluation framework of MOOCs, this study seeks to answer the question, “What factors drive teaching a MOOC?” in the context of advanced STEM courses. This study explores instructor perspectives through semi-structured interviews with 14 instructors of advanced STEM MOOCs who were identified through purposive sampling. Following transcription, we performed thematic analysis to identify underlying themes. A set of nine themes fell into two main categories: personal factors and situational factors. While the expression of these themes varied from one instructor to the next, the consistent presence of each theme suggests the value of incorporating the themes into a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of a MOOC.