MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are online courses that provide unlimited participation and open access via the web. They include filmed lectures, readings, problem sets, and interactive forums. The term MOOC was coined in 2008 for the first such course called "Connectivism and Connective Knowledge". Since then, enrollment has grown from 2,200 to thousands. There are two main types - connectivist MOOCs focus on collaboration, while xMOOCs from universities like Coursera and edX provide content, activities, and community. The author's field of interest is population geography, specifically how population changes influence global patterns. Their proposed MOOC topic would examine how population growth affects the world and

1. MOOCs
RETHABILE MACHABA
201230262

2. What are MOOCs?
 MOOCs is an acronym for massive open online course which is an online
course which is aimed at providing unlimited participation and open
access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as
filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide
interactive user forums to support community interactions between
students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs).

3. The history of MOOCs
 The term MOOCs came to existence in the year 2008, and in the same year
there was the first presentation of MOOCs, however its name was
‘Connectivism and Connective Knowledge/2008’. They used many different
platforms to attempt to engage students with the topic, including
Facebook groups, Wiki pages, blogs, forums and other resources.
 Form then onwards around 2,200 people had signed up for CCK08, and
170 of them had created their own blogs. Due to the fact that the course
was free and open, which meant that anyone could join, modify or remix
the content without paying

4. The types of MOOCs
 Connectivist MOOCs (c-MOOCs)
Learning in Connectivist-based MOOCs reflects on processes which are
essential for life and work in the 21st century, in which information is
characterized by the constant change and renewal, is collectivized, poorly
organized, and incompletely evaluated (Kop & Hill, 2008).
 x-MOOCs like Udacity, EdX, Coursera
Provides open online content, practice and activities in the domain in
question; Adult Education in Israel N. 13, 2014 113 – providing not only open
online content in a domain but also immersion into a community of
practitioners associated with that domain. Another important factor that
differentiates an xMOOC from a cMOOC is the people that are behind them.
Rather than there being a group of individuals building up the course as in a
cMOOC, an xMOOC normally has one or more higher education colleges or
schools behind it.

5. My field of interest
 I am a Geography student educator and my favourite part of the subject is
population geography.
 My field of interest is population geography in terms of how the change in
population can influence everything that happens around the world and
the patterns that do exist .

6. MOOC Topic
 My MOOC topic is population and how it influences the world patterns ,
and how can the infatuation of population growth affect us and the factors
behind the movement of populatioms across the globe.

7. References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course
http://moocnewsandreviews.com/a-short-history-of-moocs-and-distance-
learning/
http://cms.education.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/ECC22EA4-F932-420C-AA4E-
CEDF2CB9002D/185084/8DalitLevyTwoTypesofMOOCs.pdf
http://failingcivilization.com/448/environment/world-population-growth-
out-of-control/