This document provides an overview of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It discusses the history and origins of MOOCs, tracing them back to 2004. It outlines two main types of MOOCs - cMOOCs which emphasize openness, connections, and collaboration, and xMOOCs which have a more formal structure. The document also examines the pros and cons of MOOCs, noting that they provide free or low-cost access to courses but can lack real-world engagement. It concludes by stating that the presenter is interested in life sciences MOOCs that allow sharing ideas between peers and experts.

1. MOOCS PRESENTATION
GIFT THAMSANQA LUBISI
201209380

2. CONTENTS
 HISTORY OF MOOCS
 DIFFERENT TYPES OF MOOCS
 MY FIELD OF INTEREST

3. THE MEANING OF MOOCS
 BASICALLY THE WORD STANDS FOR :
Massive
Open
Online
Courses

4. HISTORY OF MOOC (precisely)
 In the year 2004 George Siemens together with Stephen Downes made a theory
of connectivism.
 They had a thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections
and thus learning pertain of the ability to construct and transverse those
networks (Downes, 2012).
 Then in the year 2008 the first MOOC presented at the University of Manitoba
with a number of 2200 learners.
 The again in the year 2010, Dave Cormeir captured videos and uploaded those
on youtube. (www.youtube.com)
 During 2011, MOOC was part of preparation skills for new students in college
and a requirement.
 In 2012:
 The Harvard’s first MOOC had 370,000 registed students (Pappano, 2012)
 The Coursera launched from Standford which offers the first xMOOCs (Chen,
2012)
 In 2013 cMOOCs and xMOOCs were too many to count accurately

5. MOOCS

6. DOWNES’ MOOC MODEL
Four crucial elements for a successful MOOC as follows;
 Autonomy: students decide on how much time to participate
 Diversity: students come from various background, different disciplines,
different countries with different views
 Openness: MOOCs should be open and easy accessible for anyone to
participate
 Interactivity: chats, social networking, video meeting and collaboration

8. TYPES OF MOOCs
X
 Network building, collaboration
 Rich social media
 Informal learning
 Academics, Non profits,
Individuals
 Many-to-many (dialogue, peer
interactions)
 Drive towards openness
 Constructivist, connectivist
approach
Y
 Organized group work
 Social media required
 More formal learning
 Major Universities
 One-to-many (student or content,
teacher or student interaction)
 Open to join, but not every
content
 Behaviourist, cognitivist approach

9. TYPE OF MOOC

10. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
OF MOOCS
PROS
 Computer and internet access
are only needed and internet
devices.
 Students can share work, judge
others and receive feedback
 Good instructors without high fees
of going to school
 Learning is informal and at
student’s own pace
 It is for free, unless college credit is
offered
CONS
 Technical difficulties
 Students must learn to be
responsible for their own learning
(no parasites)
 Students must learn to be
responsible for their own learning
 Limited real-world engagement
(face time)
 xMOOCs involve costs, sometimes
significant

11. PROS AND CONS

12. MY FIELD OF INTEREST
 Firstly, I am interested in sharing ideas with my peers, learning from each
other out of new fresh ideas.
 I do consider learning from my teachers and other expert, since they say
‘experience is the great teacher’.
 This is a type of MOOC I would like to join.
 I am also a life science educator, thus I would like to involve myself with
people in the same field.
 My premise is to get ideas from different people and sharing my ideas with
them so that we can spread the love of Biological science to many people,
especially upcoming students.

13. Reference list
Moocs presentations. Available from:
 http://www.slideshare.net/oerafrica/the-rise-of-moocs
 http://www.slideshare.net/LynGoodnight/multmedia-presentation-
goodnight
 http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/2013-05-06-moose
 http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/education-as-
platform?from_search=11
 http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/how-to-organize-a-
mooc?from_search=9 [accessed in 28/02/2014].

14. THANK YOU