Building a R.I.C.H. Brand in 10 Hours: Teaching Sustainability Concepts through Thai MOOC Varintra Sirisuthikul Abstract—Global educators in higher education are increasingly using massive open online courses (MOOCs) as a platform to convert traditional degree programs into short courses and certification programs. This study aims to investigate how Thai MOOCs were created and delivered, to teach learners about sustainability, a topic that academics, policymakers, practitioners, and the public in Thailand are interested in. A mixed methods approach was used to evaluate the creation and delivery of a sustainability course in Thai MOOC Platform. According to the findings, most participants in the instructor-led course were satisfied with their course experience. The format of the course, the complexity of the material, and how well a student interacted with the instructors were all factors that affected how well they could complete the course. The course’s survey revealed that Thai MOOC learners came from a variety of backgrounds. This demonstrates how crucial course personalization is for enabling self-paced online learning. Index Terms—Brand building, distance education, massive open online course, Thai MOOC I. INTRODUCTION Massive open online courses (MOOCs), which provide free online courses to millions of students, have grown in popularity in the online learning community [1]. Students from all across the world can access free, high-quality classes through MOOCs [2]. Global educators have started to pay attention to MOOCs due to MOOCs’ capacity to provide free education anywhere, especially in developing countries where governments also serve as developers. MOOCs have the potential to alter the way that higher education is taught and learned [3]. The Thai Ministry of Education has been guiding Thailand toward Thailand 4.0, with the country’s ambitions to develop a digital economy and society, in order to keep up with the rest of the world in many sectors, including politics, the economy, society, and technological innovation. The Thai government has made an effort to develop a nationwide online education platform using cutting-edge information and digital technologies in order to improve Thai manpower. As a result, the Thai MOOC project under the Thailand 4.0 model, which was established in 2017 as a free, open platform for online education, was launched. The project aimed to increase access to information and communication technologies among Thai people under the National Digital Economy and Society Development Plan and Policy (2018–2037) [4]. This is in line with the United Nations Thailand Sustainable Development Goal 4, which stresses Manuscript received May 28, 2022; revised July 4, 2022; accepted July 18, 2022. Varintra Sirisuthikul is with Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, Thailand. E-mail: varintra@g.swu.ac.th (V.S.) the importance of quality education to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. In the early phase of Thai MOOC, courses were developed in cooperation with educational networks nationwide. All courses were designed to promote and disseminate the government’s basic policy to citizens, students, and officials to ensure sustainable country development [4]. Currently, the Thai MOOC platform has around 300 courses available for self-paced learning. Due to sustainable development has gained popular attention as a result of government advocacy in the media, Thai educational designers are drawn to developing courses that tackle sustainability concerns from a number of perspectives. Thai MOOCs consequently provide a range of subjects covering sustainability-related concerns. Given that the majority of MOOC courses are offered as self-paced learning options, enhancing course instruction to assist students in finishing the course is a crucial issue [5]. As a result, the purpose of this research is to investigate the design and delivery of Thai MOOC courses, with a particular emphasis on courses that deal with the concept of sustainability. The 10-hour module swu012 on “Building Good Brand with R.I.C.H.” was selected as the case study for a number of reasons. Firstly, the term R.I.C.H. was used as a guiding principle in the course swu012 to emphasize the topic of brand sustainability. In this course, R.I.C.H. has special connotation, where R. stands for radical, I. for integrate, C. for care, and H. for humanity. Secondly, there was no prerequisite for the course because the course was designed for learners from a variety of backgrounds. As a result, this reflects the majority of Thai MOOC students. Thirdly, the course was made available in a variety of formats: a stand-alone online course, a blended classroom course, an instructor-led course, and a self-paced course, allowing for various forms of assessment. II. LITERATURE REVIEW A. From Traditional Classrooms to MOOCs Many scholars consider MOOCs as a disruptive technology and paradigm-shifting innovation in higher education [6–8]. MOOCs have enormous benefits for both individuals and society. Given that many MOOC courses are offered for free and require no educational prerequisites, these help to overcome some of the traditional barriers to pursuing higher education, such as costs and academic background [5]. Additionally, the accessibility of MOOCs has greatly improved university instruction [9]. The MOOC format offers new possibilities to complement in-person classes in higher education as well as the ability to use it as a self-regulated, stand-alone online course without official International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 13, No. 5, May 2023 849 doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2023.13.5.1878