MOOCs in Omani Higher Education Institutions: Use and Popularity

Due to the rapid influence of technology on the teaching-learning process, both instructors and students alike are expected to keep abreast of the perpetual developments in the field of education. The introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (Henceforth MOOCs), as one form of e-learning, has made skyrocketing changes in the manner and availability of education provided to mass numbers of learners all the world, including Arab countries. The use of MOOCs in Oman is relatively new, and thus it appears to be unbeknown to a large segment of undergraduate students. The study beforehand, therefore, is meant to explore Omani undergraduate students’ awareness of MOOCs both locally and globally via the use a self-administered questionnaire targeting three main academic institutions in Oman with a total number of 306 participants. In-depth scrutiny of the obtained data evidently shows that unfamiliarity of MOOCs among Omani undergraduate students is significantly high, a fact reflected in the high percentage of those oblivious of its existence (88.89%) as opposed to those (11.11 %) who are familiar with MOOCs. Lack of publicity of these platforms in the Omani academic institutions and the academic community in general, among several other reasons, stand behind such unawareness of these platforms.


Introduction
The increasing value and importance of education is reflected in the attention availed by governments and educational institutions in allocating high income to improve and develop their teaching policies.
The need to diversify teaching methods and styles has been realized by governments and academic institutions worldwide. Countries compete with one another to develop new technologies to foster education and to take advantage of the digital revolution. E-learning is one of the latest powerful technologies that support education, for it creates new methods and insights into the teaching-learning process by making both students and teachers more enthusiastic and interactive in the modern learning style (Gupta, 2017). One major type of e-learning that adds to the amelioration of education and thus merits exploration is the use of MOOCs in the teaching-leaning process.
With both traditional education and digital self-education combined, the term 'education through MOOCs' has become widely spread among learners in different majors and spheres around the globe (Tayeb & Sarirete, 2016). Known across nations, the term MOOCs refers to courses that are open to a broad audience over the Internet (Arageek, 2017). These courses are available to all knowledge-seekers who have access to the internet, making learning at their disposal and at their space and pace. The use of MOOCs has recently become so popular among students and users from different occupations as millions of people register in hundreds of courses and various types of platforms worldwide.
It is indeed remarkable given the fact that the history of MOOCs is not very ancient. In the fall of 2011, Stanford professors developed and released some video tutorials through open online platforms supported by free online resources. About 450,000 students participated in three computer science publications delivered through Stanford University that same year, making the reputation of MOOCs spread throughout the world (Vardi & Moshe, 2012). At the same year, Harvard University established Coursera as an independent, non-profit platform by Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Subsequently, other platforms were created such as Udacity and Udemy. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Harvard have integrated their MITx platform into edX. European platforms such as Future Learn and Diversity were later created following the footsteps of those in the US.
The use of MOOCs in teaching ensures more advantages than disadvantages. Thanks to the availability and speedy spread of MOOCs platforms around the world, learners, regardless of their proximity, can access online learning materials these days at their own convenience outside the regular classroom.
MOOCs content can be easily accessed online, be it from home, university, work, coffee shops or any zone in the globe. MOOCs make the teaching-learning process easier, faster and cost-effective, which triggers an urgent need to change traditional learning methods to ensure interactive participation in the learning environment (Darwish et al., 2017). Undergraduate students can increasingly use MOOCs in a co-educational format for campus-based courses where students are required to follow the MOOC module. Thus, it frees up time for teachers who can then spend less time lecturing and more time to engage in constructive discussion and classroom instruction (Tayeb & Sarirete, 2016). Furthermore, MOOCs can be an effective and meaningful way to distribute research and expertise to undergraduate www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr Education, Language and Sociology Research Vol. 3, No. 1, 2022 3 Published by SCHOLINK INC.
students because MOOCs help in establishing students' meaningful relationships with a large number of people who are genuinely interested in core activities and multiple new experiences (Cheung & Hew, 2017).
Most importantly, however, academic institutions and academics together should ensure that MOOCs are familiar to students before they endeavor in using them in the teaching-learning process. Roya (2018) states it clearly that undergraduate students should be made aware of the importance of MOOCs and familiar with their usage so that they can make better use of such platforms in their studies.
Unfamiliarity with such courses, therefore, precludes both students and teachers alike several benefits that could develop the educational process.
Likewise, Omani academic institutions are in need to make use of these platforms and to familiarize their students with their use, given the fact that big number of students are enrolled in higher education.

Statistics carried out by the Oman Statistics Center in cooperation with the Omani Ministry of Higher
Education indicate that more than 100,000 students are enrolled in Omani higher education institutions, distributed among different programs of university diploma, bachelor and specialized higher diploma (Atheer, 2017). The presence of this large number of enrolled students necessitates and foresees the urgent need to develop and renew the educational process via fostering a variety of methods of teaching, MOOCs being one of them (Fry et al., 2018).
Educators from Omani academic institutions highlighted the essentiality of diversifying teaching methods in university classrooms via the use of MOOCs, among other methods, side by side with traditional teaching methods (Kindi & Al-Khanjari, 2017). The use of MOOCs in Oman, however, does not seem to be widely spread in Omani undergraduate institutions as well as among students joining these institutions. As a matter of fact, the use of MOOCs in the Omani context is fairly recent compared to some Arab countries, and has not received due concern and investigation (Darwish et al., 2017). By the same token, as the use of the internet among students has become essential in their daily lives primarily in the sphere of education, exploring Omani undergraduate students' awareness of the use and advantages of MOOCs requires due attention. as "A course of study made available over the internet without charge to a huge numbers of people" (Dictionaries, 2019). These courses are massive to the extent that some MOOCs contain thousands of users from different zones in the world (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2016). The word "open" suggests that participants in any course do not need any specific academic qualifications to complete the courses (Dolet & Nakita, 2016). As a matter of fact, even with the large number of people enrolled in courses from all over the world, the completion rate of courses in the MOOCs does not reach even 10% (Albury et al., 2017). However, it is expected that different participants have different goals relative to their enrollment in MOOCs, and thus they succeed through such form of learning in achieving whatever they want to achieve (Downes, 2019).
Since its advent, many MOOCs platforms have been developed by academia around the world. These new trends in the field of learning in higher education, MOOCs also improved the ability to obtain certificates for students who graduated from high school and did not have the opportunity to complete their university studies in traditional universities and courses.
Since that time, many researchers have undertaken studies to clarify and define the difference between MOOCs and other online courses (deWaard et al., 2011). MOOCs are seen as free courses that provide lifelong learning available to everyone with no link to a particular place or time. Accordingly, participants from several zones, educational backgrounds, economic status, and ages can register and participate in these courses. MOOCs enable students to follow the lectures through videos easily, and to use texts and discussion with teachers through the course forum page (deWaard et al., 2011;Hoy & Matthew, 2014). Bartolomé and Steffens (2015) state that MOOCs can be considered a form of new learning with an educational environment enhanced with technologies through the internet, which in turn makes learning active and accessible between participants and teachers in a cooperative and enriching society.
One noteworthy prominent merit of MOOCs is its support of collaborative learning among students and with their teachers. Collaborative learning is viewed as how students in a group system understand and learn terms, apply a product, solve a problem, absorb certain information and exchange experiences among themselves and with their teachers (Sen et al., 2011). MOOCs enable students to solve problems, explore ideas, and present them together as one interconnected group. Cooperative learning is an integral part of the educational process, and it is an active type of learning that is used and applied online and in traditional classrooms (Kindi & Al-Khanjari, 2017). The establishment of collaborative learning within interactive activities in training courses makes the most of the learning community among students (Azhan et al., 2016).

MOOCs Usability
MOOCs contribute to enhancing and improving not only students' knowledge but also the qualifications of employees through the various courses offered at MOOCs. The fact that they are open without long and complicated registration procedures and without the need to pay enables employees to take part in it on their space and pace (Siemens, 2015). Allen and Mark (2007) note, however, that some employers, like companies that need to train their employees, rarely prepare programs for degrees themselves. They cooperate instead with institutions and universities to offer traditional courses (Allen & Mark, 2007). MOOCs can also provide different companies and institutions with global experience, for these courses give them a significant role in the field of education since companies provide courses for talented employees to hone and develop their skills (future workplace, 2017). Steel University is one of the universities that initiated the development of the skills of their employees and professionals through the Global League initiative, which provided materials, youth events and competitions by MOOCs (Kumbhakar et al., 2014). It designs many courses of MOOCs and involves a large number of participants in these courses. It also encourages them to exchange information and experiences in order to implement training activities in the course, which makes the best ways for professional development.

Strengths and Weaknesses of MOOCs
MOOCs platforms made an easy access to high-quality educational contents for everyone without exception for free or with minimal fees without the need to obtain a visa to enter or reside in a particular country or the need to attend traditional classes (Chengjie, 2015). Therefore it provides an excellent opportunity to reduce the significant expenses and costs that educational institutions from universities and colleges allocate to expensive courses and tools used in traditional classrooms (Bates, 2018). MOOCs have made continuous learning for lifelong learning and without need for strict and sophisticated conditions to obtain a scientific degree in any field or the need to enroll in universities in other countries (Chengjie, 2015). MOOCs enable the creation of vast communities that include extensive experiences, good educational content and people from all educational fields who have tremendous experience (Dalipi et al., 2016).
MOOCs platforms, however, has some weaknesses and challenges that cannot be avoided. First and foremost, the development of MOOCs platforms is very costly, even with the existence of particular institutions in the field of development of MOOCs (Massey, 2018). Also, some MOOCs platforms depend on grabbing the attention of a specific group of learning society, individuals with higher education for instance, and does not address other groups like school students or craftsmen (Bates, 2018). Another challenge facing MOOCs is the low completion rates of the offered courses. Although the number of participants in MOOCs is much higher than the number of participants in traditional courses, it is not possible to control all participants to complete the MOOC course thoroughly (Bates, 2018). With a large number of MOOCs reaching thousands of participants, those who complete the courses do not reach more than 10% of the total participants (Ejreaw & Drus, 2017).
Moreover, the content of MOOCs is obligated by copyright or obligated to be online for a certain period only so participants may not be able to retrieve the content and educational materials at any time they want. Some universities and educational institutions around the world still do not recognize MOOCs and do not give credit to their employees as recognized official certificates (Massey, 2018).
Due to the lack of clear and consistent criteria for MOOCs, there is no fixed structure that can be followed by the participants, and among these non-fixed criteria is that MOOCs do not apply educational goals that are compatible with all participants. Each participant can create their criteria, or they will not be present at all. It calls for the originators of MOOCs to set specific standards that are followed by all, and it must be considered that they are not the standards followed in the traditional classrooms (Gruber, 2013).
Another challenge is the difference in the role of the teacher from one MOOC course to another. Some participants explained that they are unable to establish a relationship with teachers quickly. As far as interaction and feedback are concerned, some students complain that they are unable to interact significantly and easily with the teacher and their classmates (Atiaja & Segundo, 2016). While some of the teachers are facilitators of information in the course, others are like the main pillar of the course, which should be dealt with as a challenge to MOOC course creators so that they clarify the role of the teacher in the course.
Finally, some courses delete all their contents and educational tools by the end of the course, which makes some participants complain about their inability to refer to the contents of some of the courses that they participated in previously. The challenge here lies in making contents always available to participants at any time (Ejreaw & Drus, 2017). Hence, the educational content and tools for any MOOC course should be available at all times for the course participants even after its completion.  (Classcentral, 2019). It has 40 million learners worldwide leaning in more than a hundred platforms. Each course includes weekly lectures deliberately made short between 3 to 10 minutes so that users are expected to see lectures every week (Classcentral, 2019). Assignments are usually given as the last task to ensure users' understanding of the topics whereas some are given on a weekly basis. Participants are given certificates of participation upon the completion of the course (Classcentral, 2019).
Another platform is EDX non-profit online courses for undergraduate students from all over the world.
This platform is specifically meant to help students learn how to benefit from the offered courses through periodic research (Edx, 2019). EDX features a research center to collect and analyze data from participants by collecting participants' demographic data (Pappano & Laura, 2012). Udemy is an online MOOC platform that targets employees, staff, and college students (Heussnerapr, 2013). Founded in 2007 by Irene Bali, the main goal of the platform was to create a virtual educational program on the internet and to make it free and available to everyone. The platform includes about 30 million students from all over the world in a variety of specialties in addition to more than fifty thousand teachers. The platform translates lessons in 60 languages other than English (Carr, 2013).
Teachers on the Udemy use auxiliary programs to display lessons such as PowerPoint, PDF files, audio and video files, and postal codes in addition to live classes (Lynley, 2010). In addition to the presence of discussion forums meant to collect and exchange information and experiences among participants, the platform offers several different courses on the platform including entrepreneurship, arts, health and fitness, languages, music and technology (Udemy, 2019 learning through short-term videos (Academy, 2018 (Roya, 2018).
The platform adopts Arabic as the primary language for offering courses so that all those who do not master the English language can register for and benefit from the courses (Roya, 2018

Higher Education in Oman
To keep pace with the rapid development of education in the world, Oman felt the urgent need to have highly qualified cadres capable of keeping abreast with the development in technology. In addition to benefiting from international experiences, one of the Ministry of Higher Education's main goals is to provide national academics, researchers and graduates with high educational levels in order to achieve

Method
A quantitative research approach was used as the research design in this study; a self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) was used as the primary data collection tool distributed to a representative sample of undergraduate students in Oman. A total number of 306 students is the sample for this research from three leading academic institutions in Oman: Sultan Qaboos University, Higher Colleges of Technology and the Scientific College of Design, as they make a good representation of higher institutions in Oman. The following table shows the sample distribution in these three academic institutions. highlighted. The analysis of the data, however, was done manually by the researcher. Participants were asked to indicate their gender, filed of study and academic years because they are pivotal variables in this study and thus important in relation to the findings.
The questionnaire, estimated to take 5 to 7 minutes to fill out, was disseminated via a link sent to all students through their academic institutions. A period of two weeks was specified to fill out the questionnaire to obtain the most substantial possible time to collect the most significant possible number of participants and to give participants enough time to fill out the questionnaire. The following figure exemplifies the research procedures.
Upon completion of the questionnaire, data was stored in the Google account (Gmail and Drive) of the researcher in Survey Monkey. Then data was analysed so that major findings were obtained and recommendations were made accordingly.

Result
Underneath is display of the analysis of the obtained data through charts and graphs generated by Survey Monkey website. Details about the results of each single question, and the important points obtained in the analysis of the results are also provided blow.
Question 1: What is your gender?

Figure 1. Question 1 Graph
If we consider gender as a factor, we see that female participants taking part in this study surpass their Question 2: What is your field of study?

Figure 2. Question 2 Graph
In regard with the areas of studies, seven areas were selected to be under investigation, each encompassing several majors within. These areas are as follows: Question 3: How long have you been a student at your college? Shedding light on students' awareness of the existence of several given global MOCCs platform noticeably aligns and supports the result manifested in question 5 due to the low rate of those who are familiar with these given platforms compared to those who have no acquaintance with them. 26.47% (9 responses) are familiar with Coursera as opposed to 73.53% who never heard of it. 20.59% ( In fact, the findings show that there are nearly consistent proportions across six of the investigated platforms regarding students who are familiar with them (roughly one fourth of the participants) compared with those who are unaware of their existence (roughly three fourth of the participants).
Udacity is not an exception to such trajectory; it just shows a larger and apparent disproportion in the number of students aware of its existence compared to those who do not know it. In addition to that, 35.29% (12 responses) stated that they are in acquaintance with none of the seven MOOCs platforms, a fact that clearly reflects the very low level of awareness of students of such platforms. It is worth mentioning here that such question received a very low rate of responses indeed. Only 34 participants answered it. Failure to respond to such question can be inferred as lack of familiarity with such platforms.
Question 7: Have you heard about any of the Omani MOOCs platforms?

Figure 11. Question 12 Graph
This question investigated lack of participation in MOOCs despite familiarity with such courses. 20 participants responded to this question. 15% (3 responses) of the 20 participants indicated disinterest in these platforms, 30% (6 responses) indicated unfamiliarity with these platforms, 35% (7 responses) showed lack of confidence to engage in an online course, 15% (3 responses) showed lack of constant internet access, and 5% (one response) showed irrelevancy of MOOCs to areas of studies.
It should be noted here that after the participants came to know about MOOCs from the introduction of the current questionnaire prepared to familiarize participants with the meaning of MOOCs, the following questions were asked to all participants.
Question 13: Are you planning to enroll in a MOOC in future?

8.
Lack of such culture in graduate level institutions 11 8.27%

9.
Lack of constant or reliable internet access 24 18.04%

10.
Lack of accreditation given to these courses. 9 6.76%

11.
Graduate level institutions disinterest in such courses due to financial purposes 1 0.75%

12.
MOOCs are not accredited in the job market. 3 2.25%

13.
Lack of time to enroll in these courses 9 6.76%

14.
Preference of traditional way of learning 5 3.75%

16.
Financial issues 3 2.25% As indicated in the above adequate efforts done to promote such platforms in Oman. Participants believe that there is no promotion of these courses in their higher education institutes and media channels in Oman. Even the participants who are somewhat in acquaintance with MOOCs have not all participated in any of these courses before. Likewise, those who have started a MOOC course have not all continued to the end of the course.
It is worth mentioning that no participant stated that he/she does not believe in the importance of such courses. The 306 students taking part in the study showed interest in participating in a MOOC in the future, especially local ones in Oman. They are willing to engage in and benefit from these platforms once they get the knowledge and training required, as the majority of them expressed that they do not have confidence in starting a MOOC because they are not equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills. Hence, more attention should be shown by Omani academic institutions to these platforms via publicity and training of their students to use these platforms.

Discussion
Aiming to be a reference for academic institutions and researchers concerned with the use of MOOCs The major ones are lack of publicity, lack of constant or reliable internet access, absence of accreditation given to these courses, lack of time to enroll in these courses, and unfamiliarity of MOOCs as a source of learning. Noteworthy is that students' justification for not knowing about MOOCs was not related to MOOCs itself, but rather due to other reasons that could be worked out to make students get involved into MOOCs and thus make use of them in their learning path.
This study, in fact, was a revelation to the participants to know about these platforms as it aroused their curiosity to know more about these platforms and use them in their learning. It also aroused academic institutions' attention to spread awareness of both global and local MOOCs among all members of society, specifically among undergraduate students. Findings of this study, hence, show that some recommendations need to be taken into account. Academic institutions need to be pay serious attention to raise awareness among their students of the significance of such platforms on the students' learning experience. Further and long-term studies can be done to investigate this topic in depth and to explore the possibilities available to invest in these platforms. Raising student's awareness of the available popular MOOCs platforms and encouraging them to enroll in them can be the first step towards helping Omani undergraduate students to benefit from these platforms. MOOCs researchers in Oman can undertake more extensive research by studying awareness of MOOCs among postgraduate students and academics. Institutions concerned with teachers' training such as the Specialist Centre for Professional Training of teachers in Oman can do more research in the field of MOOCs in different fields. They can investigate their impact on the educational process of the different segments in the society, especially the newly graduated teachers who require training courses before they get involved in teaching.