Confession of a Female MOOCers: An Autoethnographic Experience on Online Distance Learning offered by the University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The study "Confession of a Female MOOCer: An Autoethnographic Experience on Online Distance Learning offered by the University of Pennsylvania" aimed to discuss how teachers can have a free Teacher Professional Development using Online Distance Learning or MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses). It also shared the personal experience of the researcher who had finished online courses for her professional development and how she uses it in her classroom routines. In this study, it explored the gap of spending thousands of pesos in attending seminars and workshops versus the use of free online distance learning as a form of professional development for teachers.

METHODS

The study employed the use of autoethnography, a useful qualitative research method used to analyze people's lives. It is a tool that Ellis and Bochner (2000) define as "...an autobiographical genre of writing that displays multiple layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to the cultural". This was an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze personal experience to understand cultural experience. The researcher used the tenets of autobiography and ethnography to do and write autoethnography. The participant of the study was the researcher herself.

RESULTS

The researcher herself identified how MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) works using Distance Online Learning. It also included how free online courses helped the researcher's needs for professional development especially in her specialization as an English Teacher. The research study acknowledged the use of MOOC in her profession and the researcher's integration in her Reading and Writing subject using the "English for Career Development" as a basis in her class. This research was delimited to the researcher's experiences during her recent course "English for Career Development" from the University of Pennsylvania. English for Career Development was a free course sponsored by the United States of America Embassy and RELO (Regional English Language Office).

DISCUSSIONS

This study provided an overview of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and its benefits for teachers who are looking for quality and free Teacher Professional Development like training, courses, and workshops that are all using distance online learning. Thus, it highlighted how the researcher's personal experiences as a female MOOCer contributes to her career as an English educator.