MOOCs

A Guide to MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)

This time we look at MOOCs. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are online courses with unlimited participation and open access via the web, and are usually free. In addition to traditional course materials such as filmed lectures and readings, many MOOCs provide interactive user forums to support community interactions between students, professors and teachers. MOOCs are a recent and widely researched development in distance education which has emerged as a popular mode of learning from 2012.

The national U3A website has a lot of useful information about MOOCs at https://u3asites.org.uk/advice-on-moocs/welcome, with some useful links at https://u3asites.org.uk/advice-on-moocs/page/54736 and https://u3asites.org.uk/advice-on-moocs/links.

An article on 'Do you want to study a MOOC?' is at http://www.uab.cat/web/study-abroad/mooc/do-you-want-to-study-a-mooc-1345671237085.html. It has links to these three short videos:

• What is a MOOC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQc (about 5 mins)
• Knowledge in a MOOC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWKdhzSAAG0 (about 2 mins)
• Success in a MOOC -https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r8avYQ5ZqM0 (about 5 mins)

A TED talk on 'Online Education' is at https://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education (about 20 mins), and there's a related TED talk on 'Why does MOOC (still) matter?' at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYwTA5RA9eU (16 mins).

MOOC providers

• FutureLearn (UK). This offers a range of free online courses (this has been organised through the Open University, but includes a great many other courses from many other providers): https://www.futurelearn.com/. Information about how FutureLearn works is at https://www.futurelearn.com/about/how-it-works . NB Under the policy introduced in 2017, the free option does not permit access to the course materials after 14 days after the official end-of-course date.
• Open University (UK). The Open University offers a very good range of free courses - see http://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses and http://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses/full-catalogue
• MOOCs list. This acts as a search engine of search engines to track down MOOCs (although it may not include some providers) - https://www.mooc-list.com/.You can set the criteria in various ways. One useful way is to search for 'self-paced' (i.e. MOOCs that you can study at your own pace with no completion deadline), and then you can narrow down your search as much as you like (e.g. by using the 'categories' drop-down menu).
• Open Culture. This website lists all MOOCs at http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses (it's by start date and everything is listed by title alphabetically - so it's a lot to scroll through!). The Open Culture website is much more, though. As well as links to 1,000+ MOOCs, it offers links to hundreds of other free online courses, free ebooks, free audiobooks, free language courses, and more - http://www.openculture.com/.
• Coursera (USA). Coursera offers one of the biggest collection of MOOCs and 'provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.' See https://www.coursera.org/.
• edX (USA). edX also offers one of the biggest collection of MOOCs - 'we take our mission of increasing global access to quality education seriously. We connect learners to the best universities and institutions from around the world.' Go to https://www.edx.org.
• Class Central (USA). https://www.classcentral.com/ - "Your source for the latest news and trends in online education". At https://www.classcentral.com/report/ the website has useful monthly reports on the most popular online courses, new courses and courses starting each month, plus a number of interesting articles and blogs. For example there is a list of new courses here: https://www.classcentral.com/new-online-courses/march-2020.
• The Khan Academy (USA). Its site is at https://www.khanacademy.org/. It's American and aimed primarily at school students, but there is an interesting range of topics. It's free but you need to register.
• iversity (Germany). Courses are in English. This is a private provider, but many MOOCs are free. https://iversity.org/en/courses

Some recommended MOOCs

Here are some recommended MOOCs that some of us locally have studied – but there are thousands to choose from:

• Get started with online learning - Open University, via FutureLearn. A two-week (three hours a week) introductory MOOC at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/online-learning. It's promoted by FutureLearn as 'this free online course will explain how you can study online without putting the rest of your life on hold'.
• Learning How To Learn by Barbara Oakley - University of California, via Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn (which is probably quite a good introduction to MOOCs – about 12 hours of study in total). There's a rather useful 2-page summary at https://barbaraoakley.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/10-Top-Ideas-to-Help-Your-Learning-and-10-Pitfalls-1.pdf
• What is a Mind - University of Cape Town, via FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/what-is-a-mind
• Think again - How to understand arguments: Duke University, via Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/understanding-arguments
• Ageing Well: Falls - Newcastle University, via FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/falls. An easy one (but brilliant general knowledge).
• Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance - Monash University via FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/mindfulness-wellbeing-performance
• Web Science - University of Southampton, via FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/web-science
• Art History - Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-history. The Open University also offers free courses on the history of art : http://www.open.edu/openlearn/search-results?as_q=history+of+art
• Genealogy - University of Strathclyde, via FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/genealogy
• Gabriel García Márquez: Power, History and Love - University of Los Andes, via Futurelearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/gabriel-garcia-marquez-english
• The Self-Aware Coach - Deakin University, via FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/self-aware-coach

Some further reading

• Ian Hunt's Perth U3A webpage - http://u3asites.org.uk/perth/page/50247. The piece he wrote on 'Advice on MOOCs' is at http://u3asites.org.uk/advice-on-moocs/page/52938, and a PDF of the article that appeared in 2015 in 'U3A Sources' is at http://u3asites.org.uk/files/p/perth/docs/moocingaboutinperth.pdf.
• Read how Prof. Barbara Oakley made “Learning How to Learn” the most successful MOOC to date. https://www.class-central.com/report/barbara-talks-coursera-learning-how-to-learn/

MOOCs news:

The following websites give details of recent news and development on MOOCs:

• http://www.onlinecoursereport.com/state-of-the-mooc-2016-a-year-of-massive-landscape-change-for-massive-open-online-courses/
• https://thepienews.com/?s=MOOC
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/03/23/the-future-of-massively-open-online-courses-moocs/#2e90c1ce6b83
• https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-03-29-coursera-s-rick-levin-on-the-evolution-of-moocs-and-microcredentials

Some further videos

• The MOOC Revolution (about the benefits) (4 mins) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbtZboeYrGw
• The MOOC Ecosystem (1 hour) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9ahsvJfd9M
• Globalisation of Education, by Dr Clayton Christensen (46 Minutes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adpK1VyQpN4
• Disruption in Higher Education (1 Hour 20 Minutes), by Dr Clayton Christensen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUGn5ZdrDoU
• Rosie Redfield - How I record MOOC lecture videos (7 mins) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q-JKBEwNy4

This topic is also available as a PDF which you can see and download by clicking on the image below at the bottom of this webpage, or via this link

So what do you think?

Has this Topic of the Month been useful and has this been of interest to you? Is there too much information - or too little? Any comments on these resources? Do you find them easy to access? Have you studied any MOOCs in the past, or are there any that you are planning to study in future? Do you want to discuss this with other members or share any of this with others? You can get in touch in the way shown in the Contact section of our website. And do let me know if you want to have a conversation over a tea or coffee - and of course you can always get in touch with each other!