Understanding Teacher Entrepreneurs: Needs Assessment Instrument Design for MOOCS

Abstract

Supporting teacher entrepreneurship through accessible pathways like Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offers potential for professional diversification, yet necessitates careful design grounded in participants' actual needs and contexts. This paper addresses the crucial initial stage of developing a MOOC titled "Starting a Side Business for Teachers" by focusing on understanding its target audience, specifically teachers interested in entrepreneurship. We detail the design process for preliminary needs assessment instruments, namely a survey questionnaire and a semi-structured interview guide. These instruments are crafted to identify teachers' motivations, perceived barriers, specific entrepreneurial skill gaps, resource requirements, and learning preferences relevant to initiating side businesses, thereby informing effective MOOC curriculum and content development. Instrument design integrated principles of entrepreneurship education, needs assessment methodologies, and MOOC design considerations. This paper contributes a systematic approach to developing foundational assessment tools vital for specialized MOOC relevance. The survey and interview instruments presented are initial designs currently awaiting validation, the necessary next step before conducting the needs assessment study.