However, more evidence-based research may reveal the true nature of MOOCs and possibly better ways of understanding and evaluating them.Īlthough the MOOC revolution began in North America, it has now spread to universities and institutions in many parts of the developed world.

The problem here could be the use of traditional metrics in this non-traditional or disruptive form of educational provision. On the other hand, if the aim were to get everyone registered through to the end, similar to a traditional higher educational institution where a student failing to complete within a given timeframe could adversely affect the university’s profile, family, student, and lecturers, these completion rates would be a disaster. Given the nature of the courses, where participation is voluntary and no financial commitments are made up front, is the number of students who complete the course a concern? If the aim of a MOOC is to provide the opportunity or access to learn from high-quality courses (taught by the experts in the field from world class universities), then the numbers completing the course should not be of prime concern. However, not all students enrolled return for the course and only a small number of them finish all parts of the course. In some MOOCs, there are hundreds of thousands of enrollments. There have also been for-profit ventures such as the Coursera MOOC platform, which partners with over 100 institutions (108 as of March 19, 2014) from around the world. For example, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Berkeley University of California, and the University of Texas offer MOOCs through the MOOC platform edX. Many prominent universities are now offering their courses as MOOCs. Within a short time, MOOCs have attracted wide interest from educators, learners, businesses, media, and the general public. Unlike traditional online courses that rely primarily on resources posted by the facilitators through a learning management system, this course was conducted according to the principles of connectivism, encouraging learning through a network (peer learning) across multiple learning spaces. This online course had around 2200 non-credit, non-fee paying students along with 25 paid enrollments (for credit). “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge” (CCK08), an online course facilitated by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, in 2008, offered through the Learning Technologies Centre and Extended Education at the University of Manitoba, is considered the first MOOC.

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