**2. Technological innovation "MOOCs" in higher education**

The beginning of MOOCs in higher education led researchers to consider the year 2012 as a "hype year." The Gartner Group also describes MOOCs as a "Hype Cycle," because these new technologies are considered a "technology trigger" on the "slope of enlightenment" [26]. Gore [27] writes that 2012 was in fact "a year of rapid change for education" as a direct result of the "breakthrough" of MOOCs into higher education. Horn and Christensen [28] explore why universities widely adopt MOOCs. The authors believe that despite disruptive innovations initially not looking attractive or prestigious to companies, the leaders of universities realize the importance of "disruption theory," and how to identify the best opportunities. That is, they accept that innovation may involve disruption (as a by-product) and they embrace it anyway. However, subsequent studies try to understand MOOCs more accurately. For example, Langen and Bosch [29] contest the view that MOOCs are "disruptive innovations" in higher education, although they might "disturb the present state." MOOCs, therefore, might be disturbing inventions rather than disruptive innovations. Furthermore, studies prove that MOOCs are not disruptive innovations but rather sustaining innovations that can improve the current higher education market. Flavin [30] indicates that MOOCs do not offer new practical forms of learning and teaching and, therefore, they can be a sustaining innovation in "technology-enhanced learning" that enhances existing online provision (p. 640). Al-Imarah and Shields [31] stress that the current developments of MOOCs are different from the characteristics of disruptive innovation. The disruptive innovation assumptions do not support MOOCs in relation to both performance and benefits, and there is only limited support in relation to the market. However, the literature on MOOCs mainly confirms that the new innovation can enhance campus-based educational programs [19, 23, 30, 31]. It is no surprise that MOOCs will substantially change the conventional ways of delivering higher education.
