ELI 2013 Online Spring Focus Session

Learning and the Massive Open Online Course

Over the past year, the massive open online course (MOOC) has emerged as a significantly different course model. But how robust is the MOOC as a vehicle for learning? In this focus session, through presentations and discussions, we explored the MOOC and its viability as a new learning model. Topics included:

• The MOOC instructional/learning model and how to support faculty teaching in it;
• Quality assurance mechanisms, accreditation, and analytics;
• Instructional design challenges and opportunities;
• Student evaluation, assessment, and academic integrity; and
• The future of higher education and the MOOC

The focus session sought to engage the teaching and learning community in exploring this new online course model. We toured institutional examples of MOOCs, various instructional designs and delivery models, processes, methodologies for setting up and evaluating the model, and implications for teaching and learning.