Planet eCore: What the Heck is a MOOC?!

For those of us working in higher education, the term "MOOC" has become very common. However, if you do not fall into that category, you may have seen this buzz word floating around in cyberspace and wondered - what the heck is a MOOC, anyway!! Well, wonder no more...

MOOC is an acronym for Massively Open Online Course: 

Massive - meaning they are typically large classes with high (if any) enrollment caps 
Open - meaning they are free and open to the public, and 
Online - meaning (you guessed it) the course is delivered online

The basic concept of a MOOC is that it is open online learning that is available to anyone, and it is offered at no cost to the learner. A MOOC is one of many pathways to further one's education, and is viewed by the academic world as an offering to help make higher education more accessible to the public. 

A MOOC typically takes the form of free online learning with audiovisual content (videos), automated quizzes, peer–assessments and online discussion forums.A learner enrolled in a MOOC can typically expect more interaction with online content and their fellow learners and less interaction with the instructor. 

A MOOC can help learners earn certificates, badges and even college credits. A MOOC can also help college students or potential students prepare and review for specific subject credit-courses or for-credit-exams like the CLEP. CLEP stands for College-Level Examination Program which gives students credit-by-examination and is accepted at thousands of colleges and universities.

So - now that you know what a MOOC is - you can start taking advantage of these FREE courses!

Check out some of the MOOCs available right now on Desire2Learn Open Courses, including the eCore Macroeconomics CLEP prep course, which starts November 3rd. 

"We believe that making learning available to everyone helps build a better future." - Desire2Learn Open Courses.

Christy Talley-Smith
Director, USG eCore Curriculum & Instruction
ctalley@westga.edu