Facilitating the development of learning strategies in an online learning environment

The findings indicate that learners prefer metacognitive strategies and they have a tendency to combine them with general learning strategies in the case of language learning. Results further indicate that learners have a positive approach to language learning strategies and want it to be implemented from primary education. The promising feature of the findings is the overwhelming response from the female learners as MOOCs compliment and overcome the constraints that women face in Saudi Arabia.

The qualitative findings suggest that learners prefer online learning strategies and regard social media as a useful tool in education, especially when they interact with peers and instructors. Participants gave suggestions and recommendations about how they want the learning to happen. Their suggestions were regarding teaching methods, marketing, quality control and a platform where both learners as well as teachers can evolve.

Participants expected teachers to be endowed with academic, interpersonal and teaching skills. They suggested the use of social media for publicity of modules. Participants were keen to have more substantial accreditation for the online courses.

They suggested that interactive platforms such as social media, archives and messaging system should be adopted for interactions and learning to happen. These suggestions came in line with what Deng et al. (2019) argued about the lack of sufficient research about the importance of learners’ factors and their influence on MOOC’s development.