The development of distance learning technologies and the use of digital educational resources make it possible to expand access to quality education. An important aspect of the modernization of higher education is digital transformation. One of the features of digitalization of education is the transition to a personalized and effective educational process. Many scientists identify one of the key areas of personalized and effective educational process - the use of mass open online courses.

The article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using mass open online courses, based on a systematic review of the literature and the results of a survey of teachers of Zhetysu University named after I.Zhansugurov. The search in the Elibrary database was carried out by keywords. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, which reduced the list to 15 articles. These 15 articles were further analyzed to achieve the purpose of this study. The results of the study can be used for a deeper study of the implementation of mass open online courses in the context of creating a modern digital educational environment.