Parvathy Panicker

Educational technology involves the integration of technologies and media in instructional contexts and includes integrating media into instructional processes to enhance the teaching-learning process. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are a commonly used online platform for education and delivers courses using educational technology. MOOCs are intended to be ‘open’, i.e. free and unrestricted access involving no face-to-face contact, time-sensitive and includes an assessment model along with accreditation.

In the context of delivering courses through MOOCs in the higher education sector, several contextual challenges can undermine the adoption and retention of educational technology. Different psychological constructs that define the key stakeholders (e.g., students, teachers, mentors and work colleagues), namely the Dualistic Model of Passion (DMP), which includes Harmonious Passion (HP), Obsessive Passion (OP) and Perseverance of Effort (PoE), are often ignored when technology acceptance and usage are assessed. Furthermore, assumptions are made regarding levels of self-motivation of participants undertaking the online course and it is presumed that the person’s behaviour is not influenced by other people who are close to them.

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is the most widely researched and accepted of Information System models that can be used to evaluate the relationship between motivation, subjective norm and technology usage. Though motivation is defined in terms of dualistic model of passion and perseverance of effort, their relationship with subjective norm have not been explored yet. This gap in literature is critical and has to be explored. These challenges are inter-related, and in this study the role of behavioural and psychological factors such as obsessive passion, harmonious passion, intrinsic motivation will be explored. To address this gap in knowledge, a conceptual framework is proposed that integrates the motivational aspects into TAM. This framework will be useful to guide both practice and research to study the retention in MOOC courses.