Malaysian Journal of Distance Education 17(2), 116 (2015)
© Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2016
Technology Acceptance of Massive Open Online
Courses in Malaysia
Norazah Nordin
1
, Helmi Norman
2*
and Mohamad Amin Embi
3
1,2,3
Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
1,3
Center for Teaching and Learning Technologies,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
*
helmi.norman@ukm.edu.my
Published online: 29 August 2016
To cite this article: Norazah Nordin, Helmi Norman and Mohamad Amin Embi. 2015.
Technology acceptance of massive open online courses in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal
of Distance Education 17(2): 1–16. doi: 10.21315/mjde2015.17.2.1
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.21315/mjde2015.17.2.1
Abstract
The past few years have witnessed the emergence of massive open online courses
(MOOCs) as a learning trend in the field of open distance education. Previous studies
have indicated that there are limited studies which focus on the technology acceptance of
MOOCs in a South East Asia perspective. Thus, this study investigates a national
MOOCs initiative where the technology acceptance of MOOCs is studied. Data was
collected via an online survey distributed to 1,055 students using MOOCs. Findings were
obtained based on aspects of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology
(UTAUT) model that are 1) performance expectancy, 2) effort expectancy, 3) social
influence, 4) facilitating conditions, 5) behavioural attention, as well as three other factors
6) attitude, 7) self-efficacy and 8) anxiety. Findings revealed that students accepted
MOOCs as a technology for learning. Results also indicated that positive results were
gained for four of the UTAUT factors except behavioural intention. With regards to the
non-UTAUT factors, encouraging results were gained for attitude and anxiety, yet mixed
results were obtained for self-efficacy. The findings of this study could be useful for
understanding MOOCs from a Malaysian perspective as well as a South East Asia and
global comparative perspective.
Keywords: massive open online courses, open education, distance learning, UTAUT
model, Malaysia MOOCs, higher education