This data collection relates to project 3.4 of the Centre for Global Higher Education: The transformative potential of MOOCs and contrasting online pedagogies. The response of higher education systems to the possibilities of digital technologies has been sporadic and localised. System-level initiatives relate more to administration and research than to education, while institution-level responses focus mainly on installing virtual learning environments. One area where digital innovation in HE has been rapid and large-scale is the phenomenon of the spread of massive, open, online courses (MOOCs). The top universities in the US, a few in the UK, the EU, the Far East, Australia, and now also in parts of the Global South, have experimented with this form of HE. The transformative potential of MOOCs, while widely forecast, is still uncertain, for several reasons: MOOCs have done little to transform undergraduate education, as some 80 per cent of participants are highly qualified professionals. MOOC affordances and the large-scale participation rates are incompatible with the personal nurturing and scaffolding that supports high quality student learning. Universities and platform developers are still developing the business models they need to make MOOCs sustainable, and financially viable. In order to explore what features of MOOCs have most potential to transform Higher Education, in depth interviews with MOOC participants were conducted online.The last two generations have seen a remarkable world-wide transformation of higher education (HE) into a core social sector with continually expanding local and global reach. Most nations are moving towards, or have already become, 'high participation' HE systems in which the majority of people will be educated to tertiary level. In the UK HE is at the same time a pillar of science and the innovation system, a primary driver of productivity at work, a major employer and a mainstay of cities and regions, and a national export industry where 300,000 non-EU students generated over £7 billion in export-related earnings for the UK in 2012-13. In 2012, 60 per cent of UK school leavers were expected to graduate from tertiary education over the lifetime, 45 per cent at bachelor degree level, compared to OECD means of 53/39 per cent. Higher education and the scientific research associated with universities have never been more important to UK society and government. HE is large and inclusive with a key role in mediating the future. Yet it is poorly understood. Practice has moved ahead of social science. There has been no integrated research centre dedicated to this important part of the UK. The Centre for Engaged Global Higher Education (CEGHE), which has been funded initially for five years by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), now fills that gap. On behalf of the ESRC CEGHE conducts and disseminates research on all aspects of higher education (HE), in order to enhance student learning and the contributions of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to their communities; develop the economic, social and global engagement of and impacts of UK HE; and provide data resources and advice for government and stakeholder organisations in HE in the four nations of the UK and worldwide. CEGHE is organised in three closely integrated research programmes that are focused respectively on global, national-system and local aspects of HE. CEGHE's team of researchers work on problems and issues with broad application to the improvement of HE; develop new theories about and ways of researching HE and its social and economic contributions; and respond also to new issues as they arise, within the framework of its research programmes. An important part of CEGHE's work is the preparation and provision of data, briefings and advice to national and international policy makers, for HEIs themselves, and for UK organisations committed to fostering HE and its engagement with UK communities and stakeholders. CEGHE's seminars and conferences are open to the public and it is dedicated to disseminating its research findings on a broad basis through published papers, media articles and its website and social media platform. CEGHE is led by Professor Simon Marginson, one of the world's leading researchers on higher education matters with a special expertise in global and international aspects of the sector. It works with partner research universities in Sheffield, Lancaster, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Netherlands, China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan and USA. Among the issues currently the subject of CEGHE research projects are inquiries into ways and means of measuring and enhancing HE's contribution to the public good, university-industry collaboration in research, the design of an optimal system of tuition loans, a survey of the effects of tuition debt on the life choices of graduates such as investment in housing and family formation, the effects of widening participation on social opportunities in HE especially for under-represented social groups, trends and developments in HE in Europe and East Asia and the implications for UK HE, the emergence of new HE providers in the private and FE sectors, the future academic workforce in the UK and the skills that will be needed, student learning and knowledge in science and engineering, and developments in online HE

The study population was online learners with experience of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Purposive sampling was used to identify participants with experience of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), particularly those who fell into the following categories non-graduates, current undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates, professionals. The sample was recruited through a notice placed within several MOOCs ensuring prior experience of MOOC learning. Participants were included in the study if they responded to the notice and subsequent invitation emails and recruitment continued until the point of data saturation. The interviews were conducted online whilst sharing an interactive whiteboard. The interviews lasted approximately one hour and used a participatory approach based on an adapted repertory grid technique. Prior to the interviews, participants were asked to provide around 5 or so names of MOOCs (or other kinds of online learning) they had experienced. At the beginning of the interview they were introduced to a grid on the interactive whiteboard which they could edit if they desired. They were then asked to compare 3 of their MOOCs/online learning experiences and describe how they were similar or different. These constructs then formed one end of an evaluation pole and written on the grid. Participants were then asked to think of the opposite construct, which formed the other end of the evaluation pole. Participants were then asked to place each of the MOOCs/online learning experiences between the two poles to show its relationship to the construct. Finally the participants were asked to place a marker for their ideal online learning experience "My ideal course" between the poles. This process was repeated until the grid was complete or the interview time was up. The interviews were recorded and transcribed and the grids were saved as images.