This document provides an overview of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). It defines MOOCs as online courses that are open to unlimited participation, have no defined start/end dates, and generally offer no credit or formal certification. The document traces the history and evolution of MOOCs, from their origins in 2008 to the emergence of different types like cMOOCs and xMOOCs. It also describes how MOOCs work, involving video lectures, assessments, discussion forums, and other interactive elements.

1. LEARNING
ABOUT
MOOCS
PRESENTATION BY
NTHABISENG MATLALA
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2. WHAT IS MOOCS?
The term MOOC was coined by Dave Cormier or Bryan Alexander (Alexander, 2008;
Cormier, 2008; Daniel, 2012; Masters & Qaboos, 2011; G. Siemens, 2012a) to describe
a course on Connectivism (CCK08) organized by George Siemens and Stephen Downers
in 2008, which attracted 2,200 participants (Downes, 2010.
A MOOC integrates the connectivity of social networking, the facilitation of an
acknowledged expert in a field of study, and a collection of freely accessible online
resources. Perhaps most importantly, however, a MOOC builds on the active
engagement of several hundred to several thousand “students” who self-organize their
participation according to learning goals, prior knowledge and skills, and common
interests. Although it may share in some of the conventions of an ordinary course,
such as a predefined timeline and weekly topics for consideration, a MOOC generally
carries no fees, no prerequisites other than Internet access and interest, no predefined
expectations for participation, and no formal accreditation.
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3. MOOC ACRONYM STAND FOR
• Massive
Student numbers can be 100,000 +
• Open
Study any course, anywhere at any time
• Online
As opposed to face-to-face or blended
• Course
Learning units in an academic subject
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4. HISTORY BEHIND MOOCS
• 2004: George Siemens & Stephen Downes develop theory of Connectivism, “the thesis
that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that
learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks (Downes, 2012,
p.9).
• 2008: First MOOC presented at University of Manitoba with ~ 2200 learners
• 2010: Dave Cormier videos about MOOCs added to YouTube (Cormier, 2010)
• 2011: MOOC for college prep skills helps freshmen prepare for college requirements
(Cormier, 2011)
• 2012:
• Harvard’s first MOOC has 370,000 registered students (Pappano, 2012)
• 2012: Coursera launches from Stanford; offers first xMOOCs (Chen, 2012)
• New York Times calls 2012 “The Year of the MOOC” Pappano, 2012)
• 2013: cMOOCs and xMOOCs too numerous to count accurately
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5. HISTORY BEHIND MOOCS
• The evolution of technology and of new learning experiences have always been
closely related. As distance learning specialists affirm, the field of distance-
learning had three main generations:
• Correspondence study
• Multimedia
• Computer-mediated
• The first of these distance learning models grew exponentially in Europe and
United States after the Industrial Revolution, especially because a more qualified
work force was needed for the factories. In addition, postal services were
becoming faster, cheaper and more reliable. For example, in the 19th century,
students from Australia were already able take correspondence courses from
prestigious universities, such as the London School of Economics, one of the first
in the United Kingdom to offer distance education
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6. TYPES OF MOOCS
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7. CONTINUES
• The first MOOC ever offered was a cMOOC.
• Based on a Connectivist Learning Theory
• Knowledge / content is generated by teachers, students and multiple
others.
• Multiple technologies – 12 in this first MOOC – are used to connect
people participating in the course.
• On the fringes but cutting edge in terms of pedagogy and technologie
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8. sMOOCS
• Coursera MOOCs could be characterized as a Standard MOOCs or an
sMOOC.
• Founded in the fall of 2011 by Daphne Koller (Stanford) and Andrew
Ng (Stanford) and was launched in April 2012 after significant venture
capital funding was secured (MarketWire, 2012).
• As of 4th April 2013 Coursera has 62 university partners and had
registered over 3.5 million users enrolled in over 300 courses in 20
categories (Coursera, 2013a; Protalinksi, 2013a).
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9. xMOOCS
edX could be characterized as an xMOOC.
• the X signifying excellence, external outreach, exploration,
experimentation and expansion (Rodrick & Sun, 2012) – holds for edX
which has grown out of a tradition of exploring online teaching and
learning (Daniel, 2012).
• MIT announced MITx at the end of 2011 for a launch in spring 2012.
MITx has now morphed into edX with the addition of Harvard and UC
Berkeley (EdX, 2012). edX is not for profit (EdX, 2012) and has been
financed to the tune of US$ 60 million through participating institutions
and through “gifts” from Harvard and MIT alumni (EdX, 2012).
• As of November 2012 edX had 370,000 students (Coursera had 1.7
million at the same point in time) (Pappano, 2012).
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10. xMOOCS
edX
• Overall, edX conceives of their MOOCs as providing the potential for
educational research that will improve both the on campus and off
campus experience (“Classroom in the Cloud,” 2012; de Luzuriaga,
2012; Lin, 2012).
• Underlying pedagogies / technologies may not be that different at the
moment but there seems to be an ongoing commitment to quality
content creation / exploring technologies for effective teaching.
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11. HOW IT WORKS
• You don’t necessary complete
assignments, but engage and
share with other participants;
making connections with each
other’s ideas and research using
digital software and social
networking, such as Blackboard
Collaborate and Twitter
• The course and resources are
accessible and free, although
any certification required may
need to be paid for.
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12. MORE INFORMATION ON HOW IT WORKS
• Video lectures, mastery learning, and peer assessment.
• Retrieval and testing for learning. Interaction = the video
frequently stops, and students are asked to answer a
simple question to test whether they are tracking the
material.
• Coursera provides university partners with a flipped
classroom. MOOC handles the lecture, course reading,
some assessment & peer-to-peer interaction for campus-
based tuition paying students. On-campus activities
focused more on active learning & instructor help.
• Non-tuition paying open participants have no active
learning component. Students are tossed a tidbit of social
learning in the form of discussion forums. Participants
from two or three high school groups throughout the U.S.
and Canada
• Students working collaboratively both in classroom and
online
• Students will be guided and receive coaching if needed to
become technologically capable.
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13. CONTINUES………
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14. WILL MOOCS WORKS
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15. REFERENCES
Doherty,L.2013,Everything You Need to Know About MOOCs (Well
Almost),http://www.slideshare.net/iaindoherty/everything-you-
need-to-know-about-moocs-well-almost?related=1.(30 JULY2015)
Richmond,E.2011.MOOC.http://www.slideshare.net/LizRecycles/moo
c-presentation?qid=485f0841-e86b-4a70-b9dc-
23b30a728b56&v=default&b=&from_search=1.(30 JULY2015)
http://moocnewsandreviews.com/a-short-history-of-moocs-and-
distance-learning/.(30 JULY2015)
http://www.slideshare.net/LynGoodnight/multmedia-presentation-
goodnight.(30 JULY2015)
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