This week’s edition of Terminology Tuesday was inspired by a term I hadn’t heard of much in recent months (or maybe I was selectively reading…who knows). I figured I’d dive back into the world of MOOCs and get to the terminal bottom of them just for you!<\/p>\n
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)<\/strong><\/p>\n MOOCs are just what their un-acronymed name indicate: Massive Open Online Courses – course materials for some of the world’s leading post-secondary institution are available online, for free! Bananas! These courses provide\u00a0individuals all over the world (well…online, that’s the hitch) with access to course materials (e.g. lectures, readings, assignments, forums), emphasizing open access of content and encouraging the lifelong learning movement.<\/p>\n I remember being so excited when MIT Open CourseWare<\/a> came out; the idea of learning information that I would only otherwise have been privy to as an MIT student was mind-boggling. Then came the onslaught of other open course content, such as edX<\/a>, Coursera<\/a>, and Udacity<\/a>.<\/p>\n As MOOCs evolved, the free stays free, but the rich can still get rich…I say that jokingly; I don’t know if anyone is getting rich off MOOCs…someone likely is, but I’ll never know. Many MOOCs still offer their courses for free in the open access world, but some also offer upgraded certifications for a fee. The fees typically aren’t that crazy, so it really is a great opportunity to take if it’s presented to you.<\/p>\n For the self-motivated learner, MOOCs can be wonderful, but for the over-zealous learner, MOOCs can be particularly time-consuming and overwhelming on your inbox if you haven’t prepared yourself adequately for the number of courses you’ve eagerly enrolled in – be cautious, my friend!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week’s edition of Terminology Tuesday was inspired by a term I hadn’t heard of much in recent months (or maybe I was selectively reading…who knows). I figured I’d dive back into the world of MOOCs and get to the terminal bottom of them just for you! Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) MOOCs are just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[3],"tags":[12],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4s3cq-cF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleychiasson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleychiasson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleychiasson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleychiasson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleychiasson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ashleychiasson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":786,"href":"https:\/\/ashleychiasson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions\/786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleychiasson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleychiasson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleychiasson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}