Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are the next logical phase of distance learning rapidly appearing on the horizon. A recent worldwide survey shows that the adoption of MOOCs is on the rise. This study focuses on identifying and emphasizing the unique advantages of MOOCs and provides possible insights to better understanding of MOOCs as an evolutionary product of classical distance learning. ...

We present an analysis of instructional design quality of 76 randomly selected Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The quality of MOOCs was determined from first principles of instruction, using a course survey instrument. Two types of MOOCs (xMOOCs and cMOOCs) were analysed and their instructional design quality was assessed and compared. We found that the majority of MOOCs scored poorly on m...

Researchers in the field of educational technology are paying huge attention to the widespread adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the study of learning online. MOOCs are discussed in many angles including pedagogy, learning sustainability, and business model. However, there are very few discussions around MOOCs personalisation. In this paper, it is aimed to examine and analyse t...

Practical Application Citation Patrick R. Lowenthal, Ph.D. Boise State University, College of Education Charles B. Hodges, Ph.D. Georgia Southern University, College of Education In Search of Quality: Using Quality Matters to Analyze the Quality of Massive, Open, Online Courses (MOOCs) The concept of the massive, open, online course (MOOC) is not new, but high-profile initiatives have moved MOO...

Recent studies appreciate that "MOOCs bring an impetus of reform, research and innovation to the Academy" [9]. Even though MOOCs are usually developed and delivered as independent online courses, experiments to wrap formal university courses around existing MOOCs are reported by teachers and researchers in different articles [3], [4], [8], [17]. This paper describes a new approach, in which the...

Massive Online Open Courses(MOOCs) is one of the key technologies affecting the future development of high education and will have a radical impact of traditional high education. This paper describes the MOOCs origins, characteristics, types and typical platforms, focusing on the impact of MOOCs on the academic libraries and the role of academic libraries in MOOCs. The authors want to cause dom...

Background: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have undergone exponential growth over the past few years, offering free and worldwide access to high-quality education. We identified the characteristics of MOOCs in the health sciences offered by Latin American institutions (LAIs). Methods: We screened the eight leading MOOCs platforms to gather their list of offerings. The MOOCs were classified...

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a promising form of online education. However, the occurrence of academic dishonesty has been threatening MOOC certificates’ effectiveness as a serious tool for recruiters and employers. Recently, a large-scale study on the log traces from more than one hundred MOOCs created by Harvard and MIT has identified a specific cheating strategy viable in MOOCs: C...

BACKGROUND Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become immensely popular in a short span of time. However, there is very little research exploring MOOCs in the discipline of health and medicine. OBJECTIVE We aim to provide a review of MOOCs related to health and medicine offered by various MOOC platforms in 2013, by analyzing and comparing the various offerings, their target audience, typ...