The Online Learners in MOOC Social Environments

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are the latest revolution in online teaching and learning. The world’s leading universities, such as Stanford, Harvard, and MIT are offering MOOCs to the general public, worldwide, without any preconditions and free of charge (Johnson et al., 2013; Allen & Seaman, 2014; Adams & Williams, 2013; Stewart, 2013). These MOOCs are offered by a variety of initiatives, such as Coursera, Udemy, MITx, edX, Udacity, and are taught by professors around the world, in various fields. They allow for flexible learning at any time and any place, integrating a variety of tasks into the course structure. A major emphasis is put on selecting suitable course subjects, instructors, high quality video production, and a friendly interface. These MOOCs may alter the conception of education and create a culture of collaborative social learning (Brinton et al., 2013; Kissinger & Bennett, 2014) combined with peer assessment (Balfour, 2013; Piech et al., 2013). This type of course development enables the teaching of MOOCs.