Running

head: MOOC

Mooc
Robyn Brooks
Azusa Pacific University

MOOC

2
Abstract

,
MOOC stands for massive, open, online courses. MOOC courses are free online courses
that originated in Canada. MOOC classes are free. Stanford University launches online
courses. MIT created the not-for-profit course and Harvard University joined the group of
offering online courses and renamed them edX. The benefits of taking MOOC courses are
many. Those who take MOOC courses, improve lifelong skills. The reasons why people
take MOOC courses, take advantage of professional development skills. The MOOC
Chinese course that I took focused on the correct way to pronounce the words. MOOC
classes are a great way to learn a new language or something new without the pressure of
being graded and can be taken on your own time.

MOOC

MOOC stands for massive, open, online, course. Massive relies on increased chance of
interaction from a critical mass of participants. Open stands for not just free, but open access and
open syllabus; flexibility allows participants to drive their own learning. Online stands for how
the Internet introduces an abundance and completely different playing field from one based on
scarcity. Course stands for the structure and cohesion based in experience of facilitators.
MOOCs courses originated in Canada at the University of Manitoba. (Herring, 2013).
Connectivism and Connective knowledge was created by, early pioneering work of people like
Stephan Downes, Alec Couros, Dave Comier, and George Siemens. (Things you should know
about moocs, 2013).
In the fall of 2011, Stanford University launched three courses one of the class was
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. The total enrollment of all of the three courses, reached
160,000 students. The announcement was following within weeks by the launch of two more
MOOC courses, by Andrew Ng and Jennifer Widom. Following the publicity and high
enrollment numbers of these courses, Thrun and Andrew Ng launched, Coursera was announced
to the university partnerships with the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Stanford
University, and University of Michigan. (Marques, 2013).
In March 2012, because of the commercialization of online education, MIT created the notfor-profit MITx. The inaugural course, 6.002x, launched. Harvard joined the group, renamed
edX, that spring and University of California, Berkeley joined in the summer. The initiative then
added the University of Texas System, Wellesley College, and Georgetown University. In
November 2012, the University of Miami launched its first high school MOOC. In January 2013,
Udacity launched its first MOOC for credit, in collaboration with San Jose University. In May
2013, the company announced the first entirely MOOC -based Masters Degree, a collaboration

MOOC

between Udacity, At&t, and the Georgia Institute of Technology, costing 7,000, a fraction of its
normal tuition. (Are edx and cousera the future of univeristy education?, 2013).
In May of 2013, Coursera announced free e-books for some courses in partnership with
Chegg, an online textbook rental company. Students would use Cheggs e-reader, which limits
copying and printing, and could use the book only while enrolled in the class. In June 2013, the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill launched Skynet University, which offers MOOCs
on an introductory astronomy class. Participants gain access to the Universitys global network of
robotic telescopes, including those in the Chilean Andes and Australia. It incorporates YouTube,
Facebook, and Twitter. In September 2013, edX announced a partnership with Google to develop
Open edX, an open source platform and its MOOC Org, a site for non-x Consortium groups to
build and host courses. (Things you should know about moocs, 2013). Google will work
on the core platform development collaborate on research into how students learn and teach and
MOOC.org will adopt Googles infrastructure.
Their are many benefits of taking a MOOC class, some of the benefits are
utilizing any online tools. MOOCS provide informal settings, improve lifelong skills as well as
offering classes in any language and produce and deliver in a short timeframe. Other benefits to
taking a MOOC class is peer to peer contact which can trigger serendipitous learning. Those who
take MOOC classes are more than two billion potential students around the world and more than
70% of them cannot afford higher education at all. (Things you should know about
moocs, 2011). These folks coupled with all the post secondary students and professionals out
there, will flock to branded degree courses in huge way.

MOOC

5
The reasons why people take a MOOC class is to take advantage of professional

development opportunities, depending on your area of work, there could be a MOOC or online
course out there that will let you add to your knowledge and skills. MOOCs are a great way to
learn from experts all of the world- and hear different views and challenge your own assumptions
that you can have an impact on society. I also like MOOCs because you can participate in a
community of learning with learners from all over the world, much wider and richer than you can
get with a local course. You can learn as much from the other learners as well as the educators
running the course. The most popular MOOC courses are courses such as computer programing,
introduction to computer science, introduction to statistics, as well as principles to project
management, introduction to finance, inspiring leadership through emotional intelligence, and the
first step in entrepreneurship. The majority of students who take MOOC classes, are located in
the United States, in Brazil 5%, India 8%, United Kingdom 4%, and the rest of the world 41% of
people take MOOC classes. (Alcorn, Christensen, & Emanuel, 2014).
The MOOC course that I took was beginning Chinese. This course focused on
pronunciation of the words. I took this course with my son because he is also learning how to
speak Chinese. This MOOC course took place over three weeks. I really enjoyed this class
because it was free, informative and you could learn at your own pace. As a student who has been
in classes for years what I liked most is that I wasnt going to receive a grade. I did not feel the
pressure of trying to get an A grade. Not having that pressure of trying to get an A grade made
this class fun to take. I feel that I leaned a lot because I took this course in a leisurely way. I
really like how the class was set up because after learning a short quiz was introduced and that
was good because I had to keep in mind that I was not going to advance unless I did well on the
quiz. I felt like there was some accountability on my behalf even though I was not going to be

MOOC
graded. In the future I can see myself taking more MOOC classes, because I like to learn and I
can take the classes at my leisure and without any pressure. I think MOOC classes should be
apart of higher learning and should be required classes to take in addition to the regular
curriculum. I really do feel like students will enjoy learning more and not having to have that
pressure of getting a grade will make learning much more fun.

MOOC

References

Herring, S. (2013, October). What is a corporate

mooc. Intrepid Learning

Musings on the edtech frontier. (2013). The pedagogy of moocs,

Retrieved from http://edtechfrontier.com/2013/05/11/the-pedagogy-of-moocs/

Marques, J. (2013). A short histroy of moocs and distance learning.

Mooc news & reviews.

Are edx and cousera the future of univeristy education?. (2013, Feburary). The Tech,
Retrieved from http://tech.mit.edu/V133/N2/mooc.html

Things you should know about moocs. (2011). Educase,

Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7078.pdf

Alcorn, B., Christensen, G., & Emanuel, E. (2014). Who takes Moocs?. New Republic.