How free online courses are changing the traditional liberal arts education — from PBS.org
As tuition costs continue to rise, it seems counterintuitive that professors at top universities would give away their courses for free. But that’s exactly what they’re doing, on web-based platforms known as “Massive Open Online Courses.” Spencer Michels reports on how a boom in online learning could change higher education.

Excerpt from Under the cloud of knowledge deficiency — from xED Book by George Siemens:

I’ve been tagging interesting articles and websites since 2011 here on Diigo. My co-author, Bonnie Stewart, has been tagging MOOC articles here on Delicious. If you don’t feel like reading hundreds of articles, Sir John Daniel provides a solid analysis of MOOCs. Don’t forget to look at the peer reviewed MOOC articles. Several colleagues have found Clay “the McGuyver of MP3 metaphors – explaining all phenomenon in the world through the lens of MP3?s and Napster since 1999? Shirky’s evaluation of MOOCs helpful: Napster, Udacity, and the Academy.

Beyond the MOOC Hype: Answers to the five biggest MOOC questions (Part 1) — from the EvoLLLution NewsWire

Beyond the MOOC hype: Answers to the five biggest MOOC questions (Part 2) — from the EvoLLLution NewsWire

MOOCS, online learning, and the wrong conversation — from insidehighered.com by Joshua Kim

Excerpt:
  • Where are your institution’s strengths? 
  • What do you want to be known for?
  • Where have your faculty made a name for themselves in research and in global conversations? 
  • Can you use MOOCS to grow awareness of your strengths? 
  • Can you use blended and online learning to aggregate demand for degree programs in your specialization?  
  • Can you find mechanisms to invest in faculty, scholarship, courses, and teaching and learning? 
Addendums:

 

Great item here as well:

 

Also, addendums on 7/3/13:

Addendum on 7/8/13:

Abstract

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are a recent addition to the range of online learning options. Since 2008, MOOCs have been run by a variety of public and elite universities, especially in North America. Many academics have taken interest in MOOCs recognising the potential to deliver education around the globe on an unprecedented scale; some of these academics are taking a research-oriented perspective and academic papers describing their research are starting to appear in the traditional media of peer reviewed publications. This paper presents a systematic review of the published MOOC literature (2008-2012): Forty-five peer reviewed papers are identified through journals, database searches, searching the Web, and chaining from known sources to form the base for this review. We believe this is the first effort to systematically review literature relating to MOOCs, a fairly recent but massively popular phenomenon with a global reach. The review categorises the literature into eight different areas of interest, introductory, concept, case studies, educational theory, technology, participant focussed, provider focussed, and other, while also providing quantitative analysis of publications according to publication type, year of publication, and contributors. Future research directions guided by gaps in the literature are explored.

Keywords: MOOC; massive open online course; massively open online course; systematic review; connectivism