Abstract

ESCOBAR ALVAREZ, Maria Ángeles  and  CIANCIO, Julie. Spanish Adult Students’ IntentionBehaviour Toward MOOCs During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Íkala [online]. 2021, vol.26, n.3, pp.531-551.  Epub Oct 22, 2021. ISSN 0123-3432.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala/v26n3a04.

Many Spanish students need to learn English beyond the age of 25 to be able to find a job or be further promoted. Unfortunately, those who attempt to pass a university entry-qualifications test often lack the required academic level. To help them achieve this goal, they are usually provided with learning materials and supportive digital resources. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for online resources increased. This is why the National Distance Education University offered a massive open online course (MOOC) on elementary English. The main goal of this contrastive qualitative study was twofold: First, it attempted to explore adult students’ intention-behaviour while taking the course. Secondly it delved into students’ satisfaction with this type of courses during two different years: 2017 and 2020 when the pandemic had a clear impact on distance education. For this purpose, the study used a comprehensive post-questionnaire given at the end of both courses. The data revealed a few significant differences regarding students’ satisfaction, intentions, perceptions, and interests in contexts where face-to-face-learning was not an option. These findings suggest that MOOC should be considered as an alternative way to build specific content in situations of crisis.

Keywords : MOOC; COVID-19; intention-behaviour; students' needs; ICT; EFL; adult students; brief-learning courses..

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