Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Platforms as Rising Social Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Educational social entrepreneurs which offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) create social value through removing inequality in terms of reaching educational resources to develop new skills required by the business world through offering free or low cost, high quality online courses to anyone anywhere and removing the barriers of traditional education cost, location, and access. The negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic on unemployment levels and new graduates' expectations about finding a job are apparent. As known, there has also been a long-standing debate over the insufficiency of traditional education models in terms of satisfying human resources qualifications needed by contemporary business world. After the pandemic, new jobs and new business models requiring new employee skills are also expected to occur. As a result, the understanding behind the MOOCs and the importance of social entrepreneurs which offer MOOCs increased. For these reasons, the purpose of this chapter is to examine MOOCs platforms and their actions to create social value during the COVID-19 pandemic.