Examination of gifted students' acceptance and use of massive open online courses

This study aims to determine the acceptance and use of massive open online courses by gifted students at high school level. Cross-sectional survey method was used in the quantitative phase of the study, which was designed with an explanatory sequential design from mixed method research, and phenomenological approach was utilized in the qualitative phase. Quantitative data were collected with the Turkish adapted Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology-2 Scale within the scope of massive open online courses, and semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain qualitative data. The target population of the study consisted of gifted students at high school level in Türkiye, and the accessible population consisted of gifted students attending high school in Istanbul. The quantitative sample of the study, which was conducted in two stages, was determined as 401 gifted students attending 8 different science and art centers using the multi-stage sampling method. In the qualitative phase, 6 students in the quantitative sample were selected by purposive sampling method. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS 23 program. Descriptive statistics values such as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean of demographic data and scores obtained from the scale were calculated; independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, post-hoc and Tukey tests were conducted to reveal the effect of independent variables. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis method using MAXQDA program. It was found that the acceptance and use of massive open online courses by the gifted students who participated in the study did not differ significantly according to their gender and whether they had experience in massive open online courses; however, they differed significantly according to their grade levels, parents' education levels, family income levels, students' digital skills and academic achievement grades. It was concluded that the acceptance and use of massive open online courses by gifted students was at a moderate level; individualized learning opportunities, communication and interaction, providing career support, hands-on activities and enriched content positively affected the acceptance and use of these technologies, while individual factors, systemic problems and poor content design negatively affected the acceptance and use of these technologies. In the process of using massively open online courses for gifted students, it is recommended that institutions clearly explain the benefits of using these platforms, structure the content to meet learner needs, encourage student use, provide the necessary technical equipment and provide continuous institutional support during the process.