Examining the Impacts of Social Media Engagement on Learners Motivation in MOOCs

The rapid development of online learning has attracted significant attention, in particular, the development of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs). Despite the extensive publicity and popularity, there are many recurring issues and problems raised in the academic literature, one of which is the consistently high dropout rate of MOOC learners. From prior studies on the subject, motivation is a key factor if higher uptake and completion of MOOCs is to be achieved. Increasingly, thousands of learners use MOOCs, each of whom has their diverse motivation. Thus, identifying how course design can motivate students is of paramount importance in stimulating and sustaining online learning behaviour, increase retention and completion rates of students. Currently, there are relatively few studies that address learner motivation in MOOCs. In order to build further understanding, the goals of the proposed research are: (a) to examine how engagement with social media affects learner motivation within a MOOC; (b) to find out if early engagement on social media before the course begins will motivate learners to start the course and (c) to find out if there are differences between learners' who engaged in social media and those who do not in terms of motivational levels, course engagement, achievement and completion rate. Learners who do not engage in social media will serve as the control group. The study will apply a mixed methods approach, collecting data via questionnaires and course platform tools. Motivation will be measured using modified Situational Intrinsic Motivational Scale (SIMS) questionnaires, based on the framework of Self-Determination Theory. The experimental stage of the study will be conducted within the context of an Entrepreneurship and Innovation MOOC, run on Canvas Platform. Results from this study will give a deeper insight into the effects of social media engagement on learner motivation, achievement, course participation and completion in MOOCs. The results are expected to shed light on the potentials of social media in improving online learning. Also, the study will assist future designers of MOOCs by providing deeper understanding of motivational effects of social media in MOOCs and help in properly defining their roles in online learning.