Based on interviews with almost one hundred of the world's leading educators, policymakers, and businesspeople involved in MOOCs and online learning, the authors investigate the goals of the institutions offering MOOCs and assess the evidence as to whether these goals are being achieved.

Since the first MOOC was launched at the University of Manitoba in 2008, this new form of the massification of higher education has been a rollercoaster ride for the university sector. The New York Times famously declared 2012 to be the year of the MOOC. However, by 2014, the number of academic leaders who believed the model was unsustainable doubled to more than 50%. While the MOOC hype has somewhat subsided, the attitudes and anxieties of this peak time can still be seen influencing universities and their administrations. This is the first volume that addresses Massive Open Online Courses from a post-MOOC perspective. We move beyond the initial hype and revolutionary promises of the peak-MOOC period and take a sober look at what endures in an area that is still rapidly growing, albeit without the headlines. This book explores the future of the MOOC in higher education by examining what went right, what went wrong and where to next for the massification of higher education and online learning and teaching. The chapters in this collection address these questions from a wide variety of different backgrounds, methodologies and regional perspectives. They explore learner experiences, the move towards course for credit, innovative design, transformations and implications of the MOOC in turn. This book is valuable reading for students and academics interested in education, eLearning, globalisation and information services.

A trio of headlines in the Chronicle of Higher Education seem to say it all: in 2013, “A Bold Move Toward MOOCs Sends Shock Waves;” in 2014, “Doubts About MOOCs Continue to Rise,” and in 2015, “The MOOC Hype Fades.” At the beginning of the 2010s, MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses, seemed poised to completely revolutionize higher education. But now, just a few years into the revolution, educators’ enthusiasm seems to have cooled. As advocates and critics try to make sense of the rise and fall of these courses, both groups are united by one question: Where do we go from here? Elizabeth Losh has gathered experts from across disciplines—education, rhetoric, philosophy, literary studies, history, computer science, and journalism—to tease out lessons and chart a course into the future of open, online education. Instructors talk about what worked and what didn’t. Students share their experiences as participants. And scholars consider the ethics of this education. The collection goes beyond MOOCs to cover variants such as hybrid or blended courses, SPOCs (Small Personalized Online Courses), and DOCCs (Distributed Open Collaborative Course). Together, these essays provide a unique, even-handed look at the MOOC movement and will serve as a thoughtful guide to those shaping the next steps for open education.

In recent decades, digital technologies have permeated daily routines, whether at school, at work, or during personal engagements. Stakeholders in education are promoting innovative pedagogical practices, the business sector is utilizing updated processes. Even the public is improving their lifestyles by utilizing innovative technology. In a knowledge construction setting, technology becomes a tool to assist the user to access information, communicate information, and collaborate with others towards human development and knowledge management. In this context, ubiquitous computing has emerged to support humans in their daily life activities in a personal, unattended, and remote manner. Ubiquitous Technologies for Human Development and Knowledge Management serves as an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the widespread incorporation of technological innovations around the globe. It examines how the application of ubiquitous computing technologies affects various aspects of human lives, specifically in human development and knowledge management. The chapters demonstrate how these ubiquitous technologies, networks, and associated systems have proliferated and have woven themselves into the very framework of everyday life. It covers categorized investigations ranging from e-governance, knowledge management, ICTs, public services, innovation, and ethics. This book is essential for ICT specialists, technologists, teachers, instructional designers, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the latest technologies and how they are impacting human development and knowledge management across different disciplines.

This book is the most comprehensive of the assessment of reading in a foreign or second language.

This book offers a clear-eyed perspective on the potential and peril of this new form of education.

Contributing editor to The Chronicle of Higher Education and author of College (Un)Bound, Jeffrey J. Selingo follows in real time the stories of all the stake-holders in University of Virginia business professor Ed Hess's popular Grow to Greatness MOOC to distill for MOOC students (seven million and counting) what works, what doesn't, and what to expect next of the phenomenon that is massive open online courses. When professors at top universities first began offering free online classes to the masses in 2012, the promise was that one day their experiment would revolutionize higher education forever by opening the doors to a first-class education for everyone. Since then, more than seven million students have signed up to take a massive open online course, or MOOC. But so far, MOOCs have failed to live up to the initial promises of their founders, with a vast majority of students failing to complete their courses. Lost in the rising chorus of emboldened MOOC critics are the expectations and experiences of the students who, in ever rising numbers, continue to sign up. What does a great MOOC look like, and why? Which MOOC students benefit the most? How do I get the greatest value out of taking a MOOC? To get answers, Jeffrey J. Selingo, contributing editor to The Chronicle of Higher Education and author of College (Un)Bound, embedded himself in University of Virginia business professor Ed Hess's Grow to Greatness MOOC. The result, MOOC U, is the real-time stories of the major players: students, professor, university, and MOOC provider. Written to answer the most pressing questions that MOOC students are asking, MOOC U chronicles how free online courses are changing how students learn, how professors teach, and how universities are rethinking what constitutes face-to-face education in the 21st Century.