Develop and Implement MOOCs Unit: A Pedagogical Instruction for Academics, Case Study

The massive open online course (MOOC) movement is the latest “big thing” in open and distance learning (ODL). Many users around of the world are interested in MOOCs. At the same time, numerous questions are still without answers: formal aspects of participation in MOOCs; the type of motivation on the part of students for participation in MOOCs; quality of MOOCs; students’ opinions about type, structure, contents and communication in MOOCs; and other aspects. The authors of this article have conducted analyses of selected aspects of MOOCs in Europe, Russia and in Australia. They considered the following aspects: what is MOOC, the history and key features of MOOCs, MOOC types, cMOOCs, xMOOCs MOOCs and open education timeline, MOOC style and motivations benefits as well as challenges for MOOC. The authors also looked at pedagogy, quality, assessments and credit, sustainability, MOOC implementation, implications for high education including policy, as well as presenting and analysing the research results of a survey conducted among students of several countries within the framework of the European Union project IRNet (www.irnet.us.edu.pl).