About the paper

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are accessible online personal development opportunities in which participants can expand their knowledge on many topics. However, barriers encountered in learning often hinder the achievement of the participants' personal learning objectives. It is therefore important to understand the determinants that can influence the experience of (certain) barriers.

This study investigated whether the emotional determinants of pleasure and boredom, which are known to influence the performance and motivation of the learner, influence the experience of (specific) barriers during learning in MOOCs.

The results show that boredom has a strong influence on experiencing barriers related to technical and online related skills, social context and time, support and motivation, but not on experiencing barriers related to the design of the MOOC. Fun was not related to any of the barriers.

In addition, the same analysis, comparing men and women, again showed that boredom had no significant impact on the experience of barriers related to the design of the MOOC, but did have a significant impact on the experience of the other barriers. No significant differences were found between men and women.

These insights can serve as input for supporting participants in achieving their individual learning objectives.

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