MOOCs as an intelligent online learning platform in Thailand: Past, present, future challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs have emerged in the past decade as a powerful platform that proffers quality education and training to a vast pool of learners worldwide. While MOOCs have shown successful in bringing online education up to the next level in developed country such as USA; such realization is barely observed in developing countries such as Thailand. With many failed attempts to establish MOOCs in Thailand, doubts often arise whether MOOCs would be the right platform that would mitigate the problems of the existing educational system in such a nation. In this paper, we first provide the history of MOOCs in Thailand. Then we discuss some of the major challenges that prevent such an online learning platform to thrive in Thailand, compared to those offline classroom-based educational programs. Furthermore, we present a comprehensive investigation of MOOC development in nearby countries such as Japan and Malaysia. Finally, both direct and indirect opportunities that successful MOOCs can offer are discussed, that focuses on the Thailand educational settings.