Massive Open Online Courses – What Would You Like to Learn?
The New York Times christened 2012 the year of the MOOC and there was massive hype around the launch of services such as edX and Coursera around this time. However, as we near the end of 2015 the word MOOC is heard less often, so has it gone away? The short answer is no but the entire concept of MOOCs is evolving and major differences are appearing between the US and Europe in relation to their potential role within education.
In recent days I had the pleasure to attend the HOME Conference in Rome where leaders in the world of MOOCs gathered to share their practice and to further embed them within the landscape of European education. The conference entitled, WOW! EUROPE EMBRACES MOOCS, reiterated that MOOCs are evolving and that the numbers of MOOCs within Europe is expanding.
There is also growing evidence that MOOCs have a strong role to play in the area of teacher professional development, with countries such as Finland and Iceland, using them to support teacher learning. MOOCs, in the European context, are typically developed under a Creative Commons so teachers and lecturers can reuse the content and ideas in their own classrooms.
To get a flavour of what was presented and discussed please review the conference agenda as many of the initial papers have been uploaded. These will be enhanced in the coming months and they will be published as a set of proceedings. In the meantime, if you have never taken a MOOC, or heard of the term check out the HOME site and visit the following sites:
Happy Learning!