MOOCs and Open Education: The Unique Symposium that Led to this Special Issue

Abstract

The foundation for this special issue came about during an E-Learn preconference symposium on “MOOCs and Open Education Around the World” held prior to the International E-Learn Conference in Las Vegas in October 2013. That symposium engaged over 100 e-learning scholars from across the globe in a day-long conversation on the merits, methods, and future of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and open education. As detailed in this article, there was extensive dialogue and sharing of resources throughout the symposium event. Topics of discussion included instructor roles, credentialing, evaluation and assessment, learner issues such as retention and self-directed learning, administration and management, quality standards, quality, future trends, and so on. Conversations that day also resulted in several collaborative teams that produced the research presented in this special journal issue. As evidenced by the six articles that follow, those initial dialogues matured and now contribute to what is known and speculated about MOOCs and OER.