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Discovering MOOC learner motivation and its moderating role

ABSTRACT In massive open online courses (MOOCs), learners have diverse types of motivation. Learners with different motivations have different interaction behaviours, presence, and learning outcomes. However, scant research has investigated the moderating role of learner motivations in the associations between presence and learning outcomes. This study examined MOOC learner motivation and its moderating role by surveying 646 MOOC learners. By exploratory factor analysis, this study identified four types of motivation: interest in knowledge, curiosity and expansion, connection and recognition, and professional relevance. Based on motivation, the study clustered learners into high-motivation, low-motivation, and asocial learners. Both high-motivation and asocial learners reported strong interest in knowledge and professional relevance, but asocial learners reported the lowest level of connection and recognition among the three groups of learners. Despite the low social presence, the asocial learners still had high levels of cognitive and teaching presence and learning outcomes. In addition, learners with higher presence generally perceived higher cognitive learning, but asocial learners with higher social presence were less satisfied. The results highlight the impacts of specific types of motivation to enrol in MOOCs and suggest designing different environments for learners with different motivation types.