The document provides an overview of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), including their history, types (cMOOCs, sMOOCs, xMOOCs), key characteristics, and pedagogical approaches. It discusses the earliest MOOC in 2008 and the emergence of main MOOC platforms Coursera and edX. While sMOOCs focus on transmission of information, cMOOCs emphasize connectivist learning and xMOOCs aim to research new learning models. For MOOCs to succeed, teachers will need to change practices and address issues of learning, identity and monetization.

1. Dr Iain Doherty
eLearning Pedagogical Support Unit
Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
The University of Hong Kong
3rd May 2013
Everything You Need
to Know About MOOCs
(Well Almost)
The University of Hong Kong

2. Overview
Why Offer a MOOC?2
Three Key MOOC Questions4
What is a MOOC?31
MOOCs in Context33
The Different Types of MOOC35
Will MOOCs “Succeed”?6

3. What is a MOOC?
The term MOOC was coined by Dave Cormier or
Bryan Alexander (Alexander, 2008; Cormier,
2008; Daniel, 2012; Masters & Qaboos, 2011; G.
Siemens, 2012a) to describe a course on
Connectivism (CCK08) organized by George
Siemens and Stephen Downers in 2008, which
attracted 2,200 participants (Downes, 2010).

4. What is a MOOC?
Massive
 Student numbers can be 100,000 +
Open
 Study any course, anywhere at any time
Online
 As opposed to face-to-face or blended
Course
 Learning units in an academic subject

5. Why Offer a MOOC?
MOOCs can profile an
institution as a
leading 21st Century
educational
institution.
MOOC
MOOCs may well be a
“game changer” with
respect to how education
is delivered and
consumed and
institutions need to be in
the MOOC space to
experience delivering
education in this way and
to remain current with
educational practices.
MOOCs provide an
opportunity for an
institution to
experiment with
teaching practices
and to engage with
new pedagogical
approaches.
Institutions have a range
of subject areas that are
specific to their region
e.g. HK SAR / China
context and HKU can
showcase these subjects
through offering MOOC
courses.
An institution can
make knowledge
more accessible to
the general public
through offering a
range of MOOCs.

6. MOOCs in Context
 The history of introducing technologies into teaching
and learning has been one of over promise and under
delivery (Daniel, 2012; Reiser, 2001).
 Already seen the failure of two significant online
ventures – Fathom from Columbia University and
ALLLearn backed by Oxford, Stanford, Yale and
Princeton (Knight, 2012).
 Technologies will only be successfully integrated into
teaching and learning when teachers change the way
that they teach (Zemsky & Massy, 2004).

7. MOOCs in Context
 Although we have seen different teaching models (King,
1993; McWilliam, 2008; George Siemens, 2005), wholesale
changes in teaching approaches have not come about and,
as we shall see, they are not occurring to any particular
degree with MOOCs.
 We need to move beyond the use of technologies for the
purposes of information transmission.
 There has been progress in this area but too often we still
see the Learning Management System – the enterprise tool
of choice – used poorly for teaching and learning (Beer,
Jones, & Clark, 2009; Browne, Jenkins, & Walker, 2006;
Malikowski, 2011).

8. Teaching Must Come First
 The United Kingdom’s Open University Vice
Chancellor recognizes (Coughlan, 2012a) that teaching
quality is a key issue that bears upon the ultimate
success of any particular MOOC provider.
 Worth listening
 It is easy to get into the OU but very difficult to come
out the other side with a qualification.
 The OU is self sustaining, provides a quality
education valued by employers and has solved the
student identity issue for examination purposes.

9. Three Key MOOC Questions
 In terms of the success of any particular MOOC we can
focus on three key questions that will bear upon their
ultimate success:
 What are the pedagogies that underpin the MOOC?
 What use is being made of technologies in the
MOOC?
 What is the underlying philosophy / ethos of the
MOOC?
 The majority of MOOCs are offered through MOOC
platforms and so these are organizational questions.

10. cMOOCs
 The first MOOC ever offered was a
cMOOC.
 Based on a Connectivist Learning Theory
 Knowledge / content is generated by
teachers, students and multiple others.
 Multiple technologies – 12 in this first
MOOC – are used to connect people
participating in the course.
 On the fringes but cutting edge in terms of
pedagogy and technologies

11. sMOOCs
Coursera MOOCs could be characterized as a Standard
MOOCs or an sMOOC.
 Founded in the fall of 2011 by Daphne Koller (Stanford)
and Andrew Ng (Stanford) and was launched in April
2012 after significant venture capital funding was
secured (MarketWire, 2012).
 As of 4th April 2013 Coursera has 62 university partners
and had registered over 3.5 million users enrolled in
over 300 courses in 20 categories (Coursera, 2013a;
Protalinksi, 2013a).

12. sMOOCs
 Grounded in behaviorist learning theory
with some cognitive components and
some constructivist components.
 This means transmission style teaching
with drill and practice, problem sets and
e.g. discussion forums.
 Uses a limited range of technologies and
could be thought of in terms of LMS as
platform.
 Very much in the mainstream with
monetization a key component.

13. sMOOCs
 There is a lack of pedagogical focus which may have to
do with the fact that Coursera institutions consider
MOOCs to be a side line activity rather than a way to
explore new / better teaching and learning models
(Armstrong, 2012; Daniel, 2012).
 The three key questions have been answered and
sMOOCs have been characterized as “lacking” in a
number of ways.
 There are always exceptions (Knox et al., 2012).

14. xMOOCs
 edX could be characterized as an
xMOOC.
 the X signifying excellence, external
outreach, exploration, experimentation
and expansion (Rodrick & Sun, 2012) –
holds for edX which has grown out of a
tradition of exploring online teaching and
learning (Daniel, 2012).
 MIT announced MITx at the end of 2011
for a launch in spring 2012. MITx has
now morphed into edX with the addition
of Harvard and UC Berkeley (EdX, 2012).

15. xMOOCs
 edX is not for profit (EdX, 2012)
and has been financed to the tune
of US$ 60 million through
participating institutions and
through “gifts” from Harvard and
MIT alumni (EdX, 2012).
 As of November 2012 edX had
370,000 students (Coursera had
1.7 million at the same point in time)
(Pappano, 2012).

16. xMOOCs
 edX
 At the time of writing edX has 33 courses (edX,
2013a) offered by HarvardX, MITx and BerkeleyX.
 Beginning in fall 2013, edX will offer courses from
another 11 universities. In 2014, edX will expand
further through offering courses from an additional 9
universities (edX, 2013b).
 Much more selective than Coursera and will cap
when they have recruited the best universities in the
world.
 edX is making statements about courses designed
specifically for the web (De Luzuriaga, 2012).

17. xMOOCs
 edX
 Aspirational statements about “creating new online
learning experiences” and about researching “how
students learn and how technology can transform
learning–both on-campus and worldwide” (EdX, 2013;
Rodrick & Sun, 2012).
 Commitment in these areas with edX collaborating
with Cengage Learning for content creation
(IStockAnalyst, 2012).

18. xMOOCs
 edX
 Overall, edX conceives of their MOOCs as providing
the potential for educational research that will
improve both the on campus and off campus
experience (“Classroom in the Cloud,” 2012; de
Luzuriaga, 2012; Lin, 2012).
 Underlying pedagogies / technologies may not be
that different at the moment but there seems to be an
ongoing commitment to quality content creation /
exploring technologies for effective teaching.

19. Will MOOCs Succeed?
 There is a lot of hype and no one is quite sure what
impact they will have on the future of education
(Regalado, 2012; Webley, 2012).
 That said, MOOCs are much talked about and
researchers along with the more popular press
certainly understand MOOCs as potentially disrupting
the traditional educational landscape (Rodrick & Sun,
2012).

20. Find ways
to satisfy
employers
Learning
and identity
issues
Will MOOCs Succeed?
Will have to
find ways to
monetize
This is
possible and
Coursera is
already doing
it
Teachers will
have to
change the
way that they
teach
Can’t just
record a
lecture and
put it online
First question
concerns what
constitutes
success
Become self-
sustaining whilst
delivering a
quality education
valued by
students and
employers?

21. References
 Alexander, B. (2008). Connectivism Course Draws Night,
or Behold the MOOC. Infocult: Uncanny Informatics.
Retrieved April 4, 2013, from
http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2008/07/connectivism-
course-draws-night-or-behold-the-mooc.html
 Armstrong, L. (2012). Coursera and MITx - Sustaining or
Disruptive. Changing Higher Education. Retrieved April 11,
2013, from
http://www.changinghighereducation.com/2012/08/
coursera-.html

22. References
 Beer, C., Jones, D., & Clark, K. (2009). The
Indicators Project Identifying Effective Learning :
Adoption , Activity , Grades and External Factors.
Same places, Different Spaces. Proceedings ascilite
Auckland 2009 (pp. 60–70). Auckland, New Zealand:
ascilite. Retrieved from
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland09/procs/
beer.pdf

23. References
 Browne, T., Jenkins, M., & Walker, R. (2006). A
Longitudinal Perspective Regarding the Use of VLEs by
Higher Education Institutions in the United Kingdom.
Interactive Learning Environments, 14(2), 177–192.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10494820600852795
 Classroom in the Cloud. (2012).Harvard Magazine.
Retrieved May 1, 2013, from
http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/11/classroom-in-the-
cloud

24. References
 Cormier, D. (2008). The CCK08 MOOC – Connectivism
Course, 1/4 Way. Dave’s Educational Blog. Retrieved
April 4, 2013, from
http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/10/02/the-cck08-
mooc-connectivism-course-14-way/
 Coughlan, S. (2012a). How Do You Stop Online
Students cheating? BBC News. Retrieve
May 1, 2013, from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19661899

25. References
 Coursera. (2013a). About Coursera. Retrieved
April 4, 2013, from
https://www.coursera.org/about
 Daniel, J. (2012). Making Sense of MOOCs :
Musings in a Maze of Myth , Paradox and Possibility.
Journal of Interactive Media in Education, Spring
Iss(December), 1–21.
Retrieved from
http://jime.open.ac.uk/2012/18

26. References
 De Luzuriaga, T. (2012). HarvardX Marks the Spot.
Harvard Gazette. Retrieved May 1, 2013, from
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/10/harvardx-
marks-the-spot/
 Downes, S. (2010). 03. CCK08 - The Distributed
Course. The MOOC Guide. Retrieved
April 4, 2013, from
https://sites.google.com/site/themoocguide/3-cck08---
the-distributed-course

27. References
 edX. (2013a). Explore Free Courses from Leading
Universities. edX. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from
https://www.edx.org/courses
 EdX. (2012). UC Berkeley Joins edX. Retrieved April
11, 2012, from
https://www.edx.org/press/uc-berkeley-joins-edx
 edX. (2013b). What is edX? edX. Retrieved April 30,
2013, from
https://www.edx.org/faq

28. References
 IStockAnalyst. (2012). Cengage Learning to Provide
Book Content and Pedagogy through edX’s Not-for-Profit
Interactive Study Via the Web. iStockAnalyst. Retrieved
May 1, 2013, from
http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/6094365/ce
ngage-learning-to-provide-book-content-and-pedagogy-
through-edx-s-not-for-profit-interactive-study-via-the-web

29. References
 King, A. (1993). From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the
Side. College Teaching, 41(1), 30–35. Retrieved from
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 Knight, R. (2012). Free , High-Quality and With Mass
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30. References
 Knox, J., Bayne, S., MacLeod, H., Ross, J., & Sinclair, C.
(2012). MOOC pedagogy : The Challenges of
Developing for Coursera. ALT Newsletter Issue 28.
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31. References
 Malikowski, S. R. (2011). A Three Year Analysis of CMS
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/ET.39.1.f

32. References
 MarketWire. (2012). Coursera Secures $ 16M From
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise
Associates to Bring Online Education Platform to Millions
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secures-16m-from-kleiner-perkins-caufield-byers-new-
enterprise-associates-bring-1645322.htm

33. References
 Masters, K. ., & Qaboos, S. (2011). A Brief Guide To
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34. References
 McWilliam, E. (2008). Unlearning How To Teach.
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35. References
 Regalado, A. (2012). The Most Important Education
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most-important-education-technology-in-200-years/
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36. References
 Rodrick, D., & Sun, K. (2012). EdX: Harvard’s New
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37. References
 Siemens, G. (2012a). What is the Theory that
Underpins Our MOOCS? elearnspace. Retrieved
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38. References
 Webley, K. (2012). MOOC Brigade: Will Massive, Open
Online Courses Revolutionize Higher Education? Time
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education/

39. References
 Zemsky, R., & Massy, W. F. (2004). Thwarted Innovation
- What Happened to e-learning and Why? A Final Report
for The Weatherstation Project of The Learning Alliance
at the University of Pennsylvania in cooperation with the
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