Abstract
The large MOOC platforms were introduced against the background of the occupational and educational crises after 2008. The first Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, were introduced in 2007 and entered the higher education scene and attracted immediate attention after the large platforms entered the scene after 2012. MOOCs had their origins in distance education, e-learning and open education. This chapter critically examines the meaning of the MOOC acronym, explains the vision and aims of the MOOC founders and charts the spread of MOOCs around the world and across the spectrum of learning situations after the launch of the big U.S. MOOC platforms.
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These include American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC), European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN), United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) and International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE).
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‘…from the time Blackboard started in 1997, the use of learning management software in education has increased exponentially, with Blackboard often given credit (in varying degrees) for higher ed’s adoption of software’ (Empson 2012).
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Other organizations such as ALISON had previously offered free online courses, but these were not labeled ‘MOOCs’ until the term came into general use after 2012.
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The full transcript of Agarwal’s frequently cited Ted talk can be found at: https://www.ted.com/talks/anant_agarwal_why_massively_open_online_courses_still_matter/transcript?language=en
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See the MOOC platform Coursmos, https://coursmos.com/
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An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Kolowich, S. (2013) summed up the early evidence on MOOC-to-credit: ‘Stalled efforts to push MOOCs through the institutional membrane that surrounds higher-education credentialing have cast doubt on whether large scale free courses will end up disrupting anything’.
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See the nano-degree program description at https://www.udacity.com/nanodegree
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See the specialization program description at https://www.coursera.org/specializations
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See the Series program description at https://www.edx.org/xseries
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See the breakdown at http://www.capterra.com/learning-management-system-software/#infographic
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See for example the mini-MOOC provider Coursmos https://coursmos.com/catalog
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Waks, L. (2016). What Are MOOCs?. In: The Evolution and Evaluation of Massive Open Online Courses. The Cultural and Social Foundations of Education. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-85204-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-85204-8_3
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