Massive Open Online Courses and Educational Equality in China: A Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

Although Chinese governments are devoted to the improvement of education, considerable defects such as inequality in education and an increase in educational costs exist in the current education system of China. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) assume the hope of resolving the educational inequality in China with the potential of empowering a diverse population with free, open access to prominent educational resources. This qualitative research project applies narrative inquiry to examine Chinese MOOCs learners’ perceptions of their lived experiences and how MOOCs attend to the problems in Chinese education. The inquiry includes triangulated data in the form of interviews, observations, and online posts. The research finds that MOOCs have limited influence on the issue of educational inequality in China. By identifying the perceptions that Chinese learners have towards MOOCs, this study provides significant implications for the adoption and diffusion of MOOCs in China