Abstract:

In present time Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are becoming more popular. Initially, the concept of “MOOCs” was used in the USA in 2008. Since 2011 they have become mass phenomenon in a result of development of Coursera in Stanford University. Since 2013 MOOCs have widespread. The USA plays a leading role in MOOCs application, where more than 15 platforms (Coursera, EdX, Udacity, MIT Open Courseware, etc.) are developed. European countries have their own platforms too, such as FutureLern (GreatBritain), Iversity (Germany), Crypt4you (Spain), OpenUpED (European Community), Lektorium and Stepic (Russia), etc. Most of leading countries in Asia develop their platforms, such as XuetangX and Chinese MOOCs (China), EduKart (India), as well as OpenLearning (Australia). The following science, physics and mathematics disciplines are presented generally at MOOCs platforms as: computer science, mathematics, natural science, etc. At the same time humanitarian and social science disciplines (linguistics, history, phycology, art, etc.) are not widespread. Recently, the museum studies have been presented at MOOCs platform too.

The purpose of the given paper is to analyze museum studies presented at MOOCs platforms. The following aspects are studied in the paper:
• the quantity of platforms and MOOCs in museum studies;
• the main presented questions at these MOOCs
• the advantages and disadvantages of MOOCs in museum studies;
• the possibilities and outlook of their application.

The books and papers for Massive Open Online Courses, as well as developed MOOCs in museums studies are used as data for this paper.

Keywords:

MOOCs, museum studies, digital education.