High quality empirical research on MOOCs is hard to find, but this is to be expected in a new field still finding its feet. Here are some starting points for you.

Various journals have published special issues on MOOCs - for example JOLT 9(2) and IRRODL 15(5) and more are forthcoming (e.g. BJET 46(3)).

(edit - added later) The IRRODL special issue drew together research reports form the MOOC Research Initiative http://www.moocresearch.com/reports

The recent LAK15 conference (http://lak15.solaresearch.org/home) had a strong focus on MOOC research, with papers available at http://dl.acm.org.gcu.idm.oclc.org/citation.cfm?id=2723576

My colleague Anoush Margaryan has published an analysis of the instructional quality of a range of (76) MOOCs:

Margaryan, A., Bianco, M., & Littlejohn, A. (2015). Instructional quality of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Computers and Education, 80, 77-83.

Similarly, Toven-Lindsay and colleagues evaluated the tools/design of a range of (24) MOOCs against a pedagogical framework along dimensions of individual-group and objectivist-constructivist approaches.

Toven-Lindsey, B., Rhoads, R. A., & Lozano, J. B. (2015). Virtually unlimited classrooms: Pedagogical practices in massive open online courses. The Internet and Higher Education, 24, 1-12.

I hope this helps.

Last June I heard a really interesting presentation by Erik Borg from Coventry University on this subject. His personal experience was very different from the hype about MOOCs.

Thank you so much! Both of your answers are extremely useful to me.

I have hardly found few empirical studies;

Mediating Knowledge through Peer to Peer Interaction in a Multicultural Online Learning Environment: A Case Study of International Students in the US

Gulnara Sadykova Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Russian Federation

Practical guidelines for designing and evaluating educationally oriented recommendations

Olga C. Santos, Jesus G. Boticario

Delving into Participants’ Profiles and Use of Social Tools in MOOCs

Carlos Alario-Hoyos, Mar Perez-Sanagustın, Carlos Delgado-Kloos, Hugo A. Parada G., and Mario Mu~noz-Organero

They were good for my research. Good night..

Thank you so much, I will certainly look up those references.