Abstract:

Online learning is one of the most important technological breakthroughs in the 21st century. Online learning programs are rapidly evolving in line with the Internet. As part of this development, innovations that were only ideas in the past, are now becoming a reality. One of them is the idea of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). MOOCs are built on the dynamics of engaging hundreds of thousands of students who self-organize their participation according to their learning skills, goals, prior knowledge and common interests. More and more people are participating in the learning process with MOOC courses, as they offer autonomy, energy and self-regulation of the trainees. In general, internet technologies have created many learning opportunities and are leading to various new learning models, which are evolving and changing, according to learning needs. In this paper we study the philosophy and characteristics of MOOCs, the learning theories on which they are based, the key elements of successful MOOCs as well as the principles on which they are designed and developed. MOOCs as a term came to the fore in 2008 by Stephen Downes and George Siemens and fall into two broad categories: xMOOCs that follow the behavioral model of learning approach and cMOOCs that emphasize social networking as well as their own contributions participants. In conclusion, MOOCs increase participation in lifelong learning and collaborative techniques, provide open, equal, quality and free training and are offered either for personal development or to meet job requirements, according to the individual needs of each.

Keywords:

MOOCs, distance learning, online learning, online courses, Internet technologies, learning opportunities.