Investigating the adoption of MOOCs in a developing country: Application of technology-user-environment framework and self-determination theory

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors underlying the adoption of massive open online courses (MOOCs), using technology-user-environment (TUE) framework and self-determination theory (SDT) as the theoretical frameworks.

The primary data were collected from the field surveys conducted in the universities and academic institutions located in National Capital Region of Delhi, India, using convenience sampling technique. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationships in the proposed model.

The findings indicate that the learners’ intention to adopt MOOCs is significantly influenced by intrinsic motivation, social recognition, perceived value and perceived usefulness. On the other hand, the personal readiness, self-regulation of learners and peer influence are not found to have any significant impact on MOOCs adoption intention.

The findings of the study will be helpful for MOOCs providers and other stakeholders. The MOOCs providers should emphasize on providing courses from renowned universities in cutting-edge areas which are self-paced and cost-effective. The academic institutions should provide credit benefits to the students in lieu of completing courses through MOOCs. Likewise, employers should also recognize the certificates awarded by MOOCs and give due credit to the learners who complete such certifications.

The study has contributed to the existing literature on MOOCs adoption by combining constructs from TUE and SDT. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this has been a first attempt to combine these two frameworks to study the learners’ adoption behaviour for MOOCs in Indian context. The integration of these two frameworks provides a more comprehensive model of factors with increased explanatory ability (72.6 per cent) to describe the adoption intention of MOOCs.