Analyzing Hospitality and Tourism Learners’ Perception of Massive Online Open Courses

The recent development of technology provides emerging opportunities for higher education in the digital era. Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) have been recently burst and proved to be a good way for teaching and learning. Nevertheless, limited attention has been paid to learners from various levels of electronic learning (e-Learning) in higher education in hospitality and tourism, particularly from Asian perspective. To fill this research gap, the present study explores learners’ perceptions and expectations of MOOCs among hospitality and tourism students in Hong Kong to facilitate teaching and learning of hospitality and tourism education in the MOOCs-based model, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the knowledge of the relationship between different levels of learner and acceptance of MOOCs. Through adopting focus group interviews, learners’ perceptions and expectations from three groups have been identified. Findings of the present study provide practical implications for the design and development of MOOCs, and the overall picture of MOOC learning in hospitality and tourism education.