Running Head: MOOC

MOOC Paper
Kimberly Rodriguez
EDTC 515
Azusa Pacific University

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Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses are a form of distance education which began in 2008. They have
developed in a different direction than originally intended. A variety of students are taking these
courses. The impact and future of MOOCs as an avenue of higher education is debatable, but it
has had an impact. I had a short engagement in a MOOC, and found it to be interesting and
challenging.

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MOOC Paper
Massive Open Online Courses have been impacting higher education since starting in

2008. What the impact is, is debatable. Who is offering MOOCs? What are the advantages for
those who offer the courses? Who is taking the courses, and why? What does the future look
like for MOOCs? What is it like to participate in a MOOC? I will address all these questions
regarding MOOCs in this paper.
As the name states, a MOOC is massive lots of participants; it is open anyone may
participate, for free, and there is typically an open exchange of information; online all the
coursework, and interactions take place online; and it is a course. MOOCs have facilitators;
there are course materials; traditionally there is a start and end to the course (this is not always
the case, however); and there are participants (Cormier, Gillis, 2012).
MOOCs can be seen as an outgrowth of distance learning, which originally began as
correspondence courses and then moved into radio, television and cassette/vhs tapes. The
increase in online, or e-learning, facilitated the beginnings of MOOCs (Yuan, 2015).
During this time, Salman Khan was beginning to develop his Khan Academy, which is an
online academy offering instructive videos and lessons on a variety of subjects. He initially
began making YouTube videos to assist his cousins with their math work. It became very
popular, and is now widely used in schools and in homes. Apple also had iTunesU, which
offered educational materials for download (Marques 2013).
The first class which was labeled a MOOC, was started in 2008 with approximately 2200
participants. The course was called Connectivism and Connective Knowledge/2008. The

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creators of the course were Stephen Downes and George Siemens. Participants engaged through
Facebook groups, Wiki pages, blogs, and forums. This was the connectivity among the
participants, 170 of whom began their own blogs. The students collaborated, and created new
content through discussion and debate, online. Part of being open meant that course content
could be modified, remixed, and was owned by all the participants. It was free, but there was
also a certification option that was paid for (Marques, 2013).
In 2012, MOOCs became more mainstream. Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig,
professors at Stanford Unversity offered a course called Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
online. They wanted it to resemble a real classroom experience, as much as possible. The
course had 160,000 students sign up, from 190 different countries. From this, the two professors
went on to develop Udacity a MOOC provider. Soon other providers were developed too
Cousera and EdX. Some universities partnered with these organizations, or with other
universities, or alone, to create their own MOOC offerings.
There also developed two types of MOOCs one type is based on the connectivity model
having more interaction and collaboration to develop the content; the other is more traditional
course offerings. The connectivity model is cMOOC, and the other, more traditional is xMOOC.
MOOCs are traditional courses in that they have assignments and evaluations; they also
have an end point a student may do the coursework at his own pace, but it does have a
beginning point, and an end when the course is done. Courses are generally 4 12 weeks long.
MOOCs offer courses that are similar to those available at many colleges. The schedule and

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workloads are also similar. MOOCs are also being tailored to different populations such as high
school students prepping for AP exams, and courses tailored to different types of business
environments. These courses help to build professional skills among the businesss employees
(Marques, 2013).
There are a variety of ways students may engage in MOOCs. Some are join when you
want, and follow through the syllabus, completing the coursework. Others have definite start
and end dates. Lectures are often delivered through videos some a complete lecture at one
time, others short videos 7 15 minutes in length, chunking the topics addressed. There are
readings and assignments to be completed and turned in, and online assessments or evaluations.
These are often graded by peers.
Many of those taking MOOCs are distance learners. These are students who may not be
able to attend a traditional higher education setting work schedules, family issues, or financial
issues are some of the reasons for taking MOOCs. There are many high school students taking
MOOCs and actually have a higher completion rate for the courses they take than other groups.
Sometimes they are students seeking to enhance their learning and are able to access courses
from prestigious institutions for free. These are also sometimes undergraduate and graduate
students attending traditional colleges. Teachers often take MOOCs to gain more knowledge of
subjects which they are teaching. Many MOOCs may offer certification once the course is
completed, this usually involves a fee.

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Benefits for the universities offering MOOCs are debatable. They are not necessarily

making money from these offerings, and they have to spend money producing the courses. Once
that is produced, however, it can be reused many times. MOOCs may help focus attention at the
university on teaching it is traditionally more focused on research, but with a MOOC, teaching
is center stage. There is also speculation that teaching a MOOC may be on par with publishing.
Because of the large amount of students signing up to take the courses, there is a large research
sample base also (Salisbury, 2014).
Although millions have enrolled in MOOCs since their inception, many do not complete
the courses (up to 90%). MOOCs have not turned out to be what the original designers thought
it would be quality education for all, for free. It has value, but not necessarily what they
intended. I dont think it is a passing fad, but I think it is still evolving, and may become
something quite different in the future.
I enrolled in, and started a MOOC through edX. The course is Poetry in America: The
Poetry of Early New England. The course is taught by Professor Elisa New at Harvard. I took
an online survey to begin the course, and a few introductory lessons to help me navigate the
course. I watched four 7 13 minute video lectures presented by Professor New. I really liked
the lessons, and felt like I was engaged and taking in the content quite well. It felt like a class
lecture, except I think she was filmed in her office. Im not usually a question asker in class, so I
didnt really miss not being able to do that. I also did an assignment in which I practiced
annotating the poem Yankee Doodle Dandy. Im not really a poetry fan, but I found this to be
very interesting, and would consider trying to complete the course not sure if I will have time

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to do so at this point. Its kind of awesome being able to take a course like this from a Harvard
professor I didnt think I would ever be able to do that. I like my MOOC experience, and
would definitely recommend them to others. I think its a great opportunity for personal
enrichment, to study topics and subjects that I might never have had the opportunity to study
before. Some of my cadre mates were taking courses that also sounded very interesting. I hope
that I will be able to finish the poetry course, and maybe take some other courses in the future.

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References

A D Salisbury. (2014, October 23). Impact of MOOCs on higher education. Retrieved from
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/impacts-moocs-higher-education
Blake D. (2014, April 17). The rising power of MOOCs [Infographic]. Retrieved from
http://moocs.com/index.php/category/mooc-infographics/
Marques J. (2013, April 17). A short history of MOOCs and distance learning. MOOC News
& Reviews. Retrieved from http://moocnewsandreviews.com/a-short-history-of-moocsand-distance-learning/
Massive open online course. (n.d.). Retrieved July 24, 2015 from Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course
Yuan L. (2015, May 11). MOOCs and open education timeline (updated!). Retrieved from
http://blogs.cetis.org.uk/cetisli/2015/05/11/moocs-and-open-education-timeline-updated/