Paper Title
The Case Study of MOOCs for University Students in Japan

Abstract
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are borderless, free educational resources and materials for all learners who want to study at any time, whatever they want, wherever they are, and whoever they are. MOOCs were started mainly in the United States in 2012 (JMOOC, 2016), and there were a total of 81 million MOOC learners all over the world in 2017 (Shah, 2018). The implementation of MOOCs in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes, however, was hardly been known in Japan in 2014. This researcher has been utilizing appropriate MOOCs with first-year students as a means of self-directed learning in required courses at Niigata University of International and Information Studies (NUIS) since 2014. The potential value and effectiveness of MOOCs are clarified and demonstrated by the data findings and analysis of questionnaires completed by NUIS students. Keywords - MOOCs, E-learning, Self-directed Learning; EFL