Assessing Massive Open Online Courses for Developing Digital Competences among Higher Education Teachers

Abstract

The outstanding growth in digital technologies has raised higher education teachers’ attention towards developing digital competences for effectively fulfilling students’ learning requirements and keeping up with the rapidly evolving global education system. Nowadays, higher education teachers can find a plethora of online courses provided by educational organizations, universities, and businesses for reskilling and upskilling. The objective of this paper is to provide results from the assessment of existing massive open online courses regarding their potential to cover a large range of digital competences that higher education teachers should possess. A total of one hundred and sixty-two (162) online courses from three prominent international digital platforms, offering massive open online courses, were subjected to evaluation using a model incorporating six categories of attributes aligned with pertinent digital competences. The results indicate that the majority of the existing online courses lack sufficient coverage of key digital competences required by higher education teachers. Notably, these inadequately addressed competences regard evaluating students’ performance in the digital environment and ensuring positive online student experiences through collaborative engagement and self-reflection. The findings of this study offer valuable insights not only to higher education teachers, but also to online course developers and education policy-makers. The identified gaps in digital competences underscore the pressing need for substantial improvements in existing online courses or the development of new courses to effectively bridge these competence gaps. By addressing these shortcomings, higher education institutions can better equip their teachers to navigate the digital realm and elevate the overall quality of education in the digital era.