MOOCs and Teacher Professional Development: An Analysis

Abstract

MOOCs are open online courses that are designed to be accessed by many of the teachers through internet. The phenomena of MOOCs has become the most researchable phenomena in the education in recent years and a number of significant studies have been conducted on this phenomena. Massive online courses (MOOCs) are considered one of the most significant opportunity for distance learning and it is also considered the best way to implement the continuous training. The aim of the study was to; explore the MOOCs as a mechanism for teacher professional development, find out the necessity of MOOCs for professional development and investigate the contributions of MOOCs in teacher professional development. A meta-analysis approach was used to explore the data. Research papers, theses and books were used as a tool to collect the data. The results of the study revealed that MOOCs has an important role in the teachers’ professional development and training through MOOCs provide a chance to easily implement the training in the classroom. On the basis of results it is recommended that teachers need to be trained through MOOCs for the effective teaching and learning process in the 21stcentury. Training and workshops might be conducted to train the teachers through MOOCs.