Teaching an Online Pedagogy MOOC

Abstract

When MOOCs arrived, there was an immediate response of how wonderful it was that a course could reach so many students ‐ hundreds of thousands of them. This remains true, but access needs to be tempered with quality. Just as higher education is held accountable for the quality of its traditional, blended, and online courses, MOOCs must be held accountable. There is a call for quality assurance in MOOCs just as much as with online, but less guidelines. Over the past two decades, quality assurance in online learning has developed and matured, yet some of the basic principles are not carried forth in MOOCs. This case study of an Online Pedagogy MOOC found that MOOCs can conflict with certain established best practices in online learning. Teacher/learner interaction and the development of learning communities online are two missing components in MOOCs. Student learning outcomes can be achieved in MOOCs as in online, but stronger persistence is required. Some features such as learning support services are needed in MOOCs to aid in persistence.