Arabic massive open online courses and teachers in Saudi Arabia: technology, space, gift and entrepreneurship

Abstract

This thesis critically examines Arabic Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and the MOOC teacher experience by studying MOOCs in the context of Saudi Arabia from a posthumanist and sociomaterial perspective. It considers the materials, digital technologies and social context as active components in forming MOOCs and developing teachers’ identities and practices. Examination of Arabic MOOC platforms and online courses was conducted through visual analysis, interviews with MOOC teachers, and theoretical work on sociomateriality and spatial theory. Through this analysis, these MOOCs were shown to be deeply implicated in Islamic culture and in educational and policy context of Saudi Arabia.

The findings highlight the spatial implications of Arabic MOOCs in a cultural context and show new forms of teaching, spaces, and concepts. Specifically, the MOOC project in Saudi Arabia appeared actively engaged in producing new meanings of gift-giving and entrepreneurship. It reframed giving and knowledge-sharing practices in Islamic culture, including zakat of knowledge and waqf, and reconceptualised entrepreneurship in a digital educational context through the formation of entrepreneurial teachers. These different practices and the identities they produced were overlapping and unpredictable and confirmed the dynamic role of materials and digital technology in forming MOOC spaces, in addition to the entanglements of materials and social dimensions in MOOC teaching and MOOC teacher identity formation. These findings add empirical evidence to theoretical claims that MOOCs are not only a technological medium for online education, but also spatially and relationally produced and enacted.

This thesis contributes new knowledge in three main areas. First, it challenges the assumption that MOOCs are ‘universal’ or ‘global’ by shedding light on the Arabic MOOCs and presents an alternative evidence-based perspective from an under-represented cultural context. Secondly, it offers a critical examination of MOOCs by adopting a relational approach and considering the material and digital technology in studying teachers’ experiences in Saudi Arabia. Finally, it shows how Arabic MOOCs actively engage in shaping cultural and entrepreneurial spaces in Saudi Arabia. This thesis makes an original contribution to scholarship in digital education, MOOCs and open education, online teaching, sociomaterial and spatial studies and education in the Gulf and Arab region.