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Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have often been divided between connectivist MOOCs and extended MOOCs (xMOOCs). Each form of MOOC proposes a distinctive view about knowledge acquisition. However, the breakdown between the two MOOCs is too broad in practice, and a more fine-grained approach is needed. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to describe the organisational features of exemplar MOOCs and their differences.

The study observed the ten newly available MOOCs aimed at teachers of English as a second language and included examples from existing providers: NovoEd, Coursera, FutureLearn and Canvas. These MOOCs were analysed and compared using a matrix with three main focuses: pedagogical assumptions, content materials and assessment.

The findings revealed that all courses corresponded to the idea of an xMOOC in that they were run on a model of instructional design. However, the course materials varied in respect to media used, use of networking, discussion forums and degree of openness. In terms of assessment, all MOOCs used formative approaches, all had automated responses but only some had summative and peer assessment.

The study succeeded in showing the variation in courses, thus enabling the range of possibilities open to course designers and providers.

For an extended period of time education was mainly formal, that is a system with clear roles, goals and responsibilities. Education resembled an immutable and closed system with few, if any, connections to other parts of society. However, during the last century significant changes occurred in many areas of society, culminating in global reform movements to democratise education and to increase participation by opening up education. A current and prominent example of such a movement is Open Educational Resources (OER), which is a global attempt to facilitate the flow of knowledge, reduce the costs of education, and establish an educational system based on humanistic and moral values (i.e. sharing). Yet, recent developments are progressing at such an accelerated speed that it is hard to predict the ‘real’ value of OERs for educational purposes. Also, within OER little reference has been made to previous forms of Open Education, such as Open Classroom/Open Learning in the 1960s and 1970s or to the even older German progressive education (Reformpädagogik). Current OE forms can be characterised as a mixture of economical (‘education as a commodity’), moral (‘education as a common good’) and social (‘education as a shared enterprise’) claims, each of which contribute to the emergence of Open Education. This introductory chapter attempts to set the stage for a sound engagement with openness in education. It provides a conceptual framework that discusses major developments throughout the history of Open Education from a philosophical standpoint. Special attention will be paid to the concept of Bildung (self-realisation, self-cultivation) as an in-depth theory that can not only inform what happens when learners utilise OER but also allows one to reflect on the impact of OER on society. Selected cases of Open Education will be reviewed and then framed with the theory of Bildung. Eventually, this will lead to a set of lessons learned that are aimed at guiding current debates on Open Education.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a form of distance education courses. They have been celebrated as revolutionizing the way learners access education and the way colleges and universities could expand education on a global scale beyond their traditional campuses. The purpose of this study is to identify the pedagogical strategies used for instruction and assessment in leadership-oriented MOOCs and gain a more refined understanding of the current state of MOOCs in leadership education. This study examines 96 leadership MOOCs across the platforms of Coursera, EdX, FutureLearn, Canvas.net, and Standford Online through a content analysis research framework. The study concludes with a discussion of leadership MOOC pedagogy and presents the current state of MOOCS among leadership education and professional development.

This paper examines the pedagogical features of massive open online courses (MOOCs) for language learning–known as language MOOCs. The mainstream pedagogy of MOOCs typically involves the provision of short videos and reading materials for self-study; discussion forums, mostly for peer-to-peer interaction on course content; and machine-graded quizzes for self-assessment. For language learning, which has been conventionally understood as skill development, the pedagogical features of relevant MOOCs have yet to be comprehensively surveyed.

This study surveyed a total of 123 language MOOCs from the major MOOC platforms. The pedagogical features shown in these courses were identified and categorised according to the types of course materials and learning activities as well as the participation of learners and instructors.

English was the most common language taught in the courses. Over 80% of the courses took not more than six hours to complete. Most of these courses followed the typical approach of xMOOC delivery, with video watching, reading and auto-graded assessment being the most common learning activities. Less than half of the courses included discussion as part of learning, and instructors were involved in less than 30% of the discussion.

The findings show that, despite the technological advances in course delivery, current language MOOCs do not differ substantially from conventional distance language learning. Yet, the utilisation of computer-assisted language learning technology and the massive student base of MOOCs for creating a virtual social community are opportunities for developing learners' language proficiency on this learning environment.

This study was inspired by the emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (henceforth MOOCs) as an e-learning trend of recent times, attracting huge enrollment across the globe. Studies revealed that MOOCs had been getting extensive attention by educational circles in India, but whether its acceptability is limited only among learning communities of country’s top-notch universities like Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), and among Central Universities; or it has attracted equally the learners of State Universities spreading across every nook and corner of this huge country is yet to be studied. These State Universities virtually uphold the country’s higher education sector by catering learning ambitions of largest number of students. The present study investigated the penetration of MOOCs among students and teachers of State Universities in India.

A qualitative survey was conducted taking 10 reputed State Universities and 480 respondents (400 were students, and 80 were teachers) as samples. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were also conducted among 25 respondent students and teachers. Descriptive statistics, such as frequency and percentages, as well as inferential statistics, such as Likert scale and analysis of variance, were employed in analyzing the study.

The findings revealed that MOOCs have been successful in meeting the learning goals of the learners and teachers of these State Universities complementing their traditional learning environment at universities and by providing them a constant scope for re-skill and up-skill; still, participation in MOOCs is low, especially among females due to lack of awareness, inadequate infrastructure, and resultant poor completion rate.

The current study is going to be helpful to the Indian policy makers and all concerned in creating a healthy atmosphere for making MOOCs accessible to students and thereby leveraging its potential to increase the quality of higher education across country as it exhibits a clear picture of the current state of its penetration, problems and possibilities among teachers and students of State Universities that conforms the largest section of Indian intelligentsia. The findings can be used to compare perceptions of students' and teachers' from other developing countries also.

This study is the reporting of an original survey conducted in India and the write up is based on the analysis and findings of the survey results.

This paper aims to uncover the current status of information literacy (IL) instruction through massive open online courses (MOOCs), comparing the content and instructional design of existing offers and showing avenues for future MOOCs.

An extensive search for existing MOOCs on IL revealed 11 offers that are available for analysis. A content analysis is conducted to compare their content and instructional design. The category system is based on the IL standards and performance indicators of the Association of College and Research Libraries (2000), which has been supplemented with additional categories and an evaluation grid for MOOCs.

The results suggest first, that the topics covered by IL MOOCs differ widely. While some of the MOOCs mainly reflect the performance indicators suggested by the ACRL standards on IL from 2000, some other MOOCs focus on completely different topics such as fake news or internet security. Second, they show that MOOCs on IL tend not to emphasize subject-specific and country- or culture-specific contexts. Third, it shows that input-based teaching approaches dominate, while collaborative and interactive activities are only rarely used. Fourth, they allow drawing a possible connection between student engagement and design of the learning contents.

This work reflects the current status of IL facilitation through MOOCs. Further research is needed.

The results confirm that MOOCs are a promising approach for developing IL skills and provide avenues for future MOOC projects, especially on IL.

This paper is one of few works to discuss IL facilitation through MOOCs.

This chapter will explore how assessment might look in next generation learning spaces where we have the potential to merge physical and virtual activities. Students now have ready access to a world of resources within their classroom and this fundamentally changes the nature of learning and assessment. The trend toward gamification of learning and assessment will be examined and the issue of assessment in new educational environments such as MOOCs will be explored. The impact of the semantic web (Web 3.0), where web objects and their context are all linked and objects have memory of how an individual student used them on previous occasions, will be discussed.

Next generation learning spaces encapsulate the affordances of both physical and virtual spaces and yet many assessment tasks are still designed as if students occupied only one of these spaces. Teachers will need to design more authentic, meaningful tasks that will engage students in using the full range of their capabilities and available resources, both physical and virtual. Students come together physically to engage in the social construction of their knowledge and can use the virtual spaces to broaden the social dimension of their learning environment.

Gamification of learning and assessment will require new approaches to defining tasks as teachers will need to decide how to incorporate diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment components within a more holistic educational environment. Game theory will be blended with learning theory in curriculum design and will result in the redesign of learning and assessment activities that are based on engagement (flow), user needs, and an evidence-centered design approach.

Open Courseware, in many ways, was the starting point towards mainstream discussion and adoption of open learning, particularly in higher education. In its first iteration, the concept specifically excluded assessment recognition, and credentialisation, which aims to ‘liberate’ knowledge without shattering the designing, teaching and awarding processes traditional education has relied upon for decades, if not centuries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine hiring managers’ perceptions of massive open online courses (MOOCs) as compared to traditional degree-conferred forms of higher education in relation to hiring and employment decisions.

A literature review is presented along with a triangulated theoretical framework. Using online survey data, quantitative methods reveal findings related to the main research question: what are hiring managers’ attitudes toward MOOCs as a form of post-secondary education?

Analysis of the data reveals that hiring managers have a clear preference for traditionally educated job applicants but employer demographics, apart from organizational procedures, do not significantly impact their overall perceptions of MOOCs’ value.

Most of the research is based on anecdotal research. Very little has been written on how to fix this problem.

This paper illustrates implications of MOOCs’ future development and implementation both in higher education and in the labor-force. The main implication is that MOOCs represent neither a panacea to the issues facing higher education and the American labor-force nor an alarming threat to stakeholders appreciative of the status quo.

This paper fills a current research gap as evidenced in the literature; employers’ perceptions of MOOC-educated job applicants when compared to traditionally educated/degree-conferred job applicants. By determining the value of MOOCs as employers pragmatically view them, stakeholder groups can better determine their future positioning of MOOC-related resources in addition to time and money allocated in MOOCs’ direction.

The study seeks to investigate the factors that influence MOOC usage by students in tertiary institutes in Ghana.

As this study sought both to test existing UTAUT variables and potentially identify additional variables impacting MOOC usage, a mixed method approach was used. The quantitative study was used to test the significance of UTAUT variables on MOOC usage while the qualitative study was conducted to validate the quantitative results and potentially determine additional factors impacting MOOC usage.

The results of the quantitative data analysis showed that computer self-efficacy, performance expectancy and system quality had a significant influence on MOOC usage intention. Facilitating conditions, instructional quality and MOOC usage intention were found to have a significant influence on actual MOOC usage. The results of the qualitative data analysis showed that information-seeking behaviour and functional Internet access were dominant non-UTAUT factors that influence actual MOOC usage, while teacher motivation was a dominant non-UTAUT factor that influenced MOOC usage intention.

The study employed a non-probability sampling technique which imposes limitations on the generalizability of the findings. Additionally, the study was conducted in two out of the ten geographical and administration regions of Ghana; this also imposes limitations on the generalizability of the findings.

It is important that lecturers and university management find ways of motivating students to participate in MOOCs. Lecturers can influence students to use MOOCs if they regularly and persistently spur the students on to use MOOCs. Lecturers can also adopt other innovative strategies such as posting MOOC information on student noticeboards, the formation of MOOC clubs and the commissioning of MOOC champions on campuses.

The significance of functional Internet access in MOOC usage implies that good Internet connectivity is critical for online learning in developing countries. Regulators of Internet service providers must enforce strict adherence to quality of service standards regarding the provision of Internet service. The Internet service pricing regime must favour the use of the Internet for learning purposes.

The study adopted a mixed method approach to explore MOOC usage in a West African university context. The non-significance of two key UTAUT variables (effort expectancy and social influence) points to a key difference between the application of adoption and usage models to information systems compared to e-learning systems. Additionally, three other variables, namely information-seeking behaviour, functional Internet access and teacher motivation, were found to impact MOOC usage. The study presents a model of MOOC usage (MMU).