Massive Open Online Courses for professional development for teachers of higher education. An Indian perspective

Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject Pedagogy - The Teacher, Educational Leadership, grade: A, , language: English, abstract: The main aim of the present paper is to explore the importance and contribution of MOOCs for the professional development of teachers in higher education institutes. MOOCs are online courses for anyone with internet access. A qualitative research has been conducted to find out the opinion of teachers. At present MOOCs are popular in higher education institutes particularly in engineering and management. In general, teachers' attitude towards MOOCs is positive. MOOCs can be used for teachers who need: additional insights into topic of their choice, to update their skills, to expand their knowledge and to learn innovatory and current trends in teaching-learning. MOOCs require some more momentum in the form of teachers' awareness, credit recognition, etc. In the future, there will be high demand for MOOCS for professional development, since professionals can continue their services, apart from updating their skills. Thus, MOOCs can be incorporated gradually in a step-by-step manner to cope with the current trends of teachers' professional development along with the updated rules and regulations.

Dr. M. Pratibha, M.A., M.Sc., PGDTE, Ph.D., is working as a Professor and Head of the Department at Mahaveer Institute of Science and Technology, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. She has 29years of teaching experience in India and Germany. Her area of specialisation in her Ph.D. is Computer Assisted Language Learning. She has Presented about 20 research papers in various national and International conferences. She has published 3 books and 16 papers in various international journals. Working as the BoS-Chairperson, designed a new syllabus for the enhancement of employable skills of Engineering students. She has been a Resource Person and Chairperson in different national and international conferences. Dr. Pratibha has also published chapters in international editions. She has conducted various seminars, symposia, webinars, FDPs, etc. She is working as editor and subeditor for International journals. Received an international award (Gold Medal) as an outstanding Faculty Advisor on 13th April 2017 at Rabat, Morocco International Conference in recognition and appreciation of Outstanding Activities for the IEOM Student Chapter at VJIT, Hyderabad, and Contribution to the Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Profession. She has rendered her service to the community through Swachh Bharat and the other NGOs.