Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses: Strategies and Predictions for the Future

To some in academia, Massive Open Online Courses are a paradigm shift in online education, while others perceive them as a threat to traditional styles of pedagogy. In this regard, the time-honored model of the university lecture is seen as being a potential casualty of the rise of MOOCs. Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future provides insight into the emerging phenomenon of MOOCs as a design manual for the course designer with a collection of chapters that deal with all facets of the MOOC debate. Industry training developers, corporate trainers, educators, post graduate students, and others will benefit from the information provided in this book.

Elspeth McKay is co-editor of this book with her colleague John Lenarcic. Elspeth is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at the RMIT University, School of Business IT and Logistics, Melbourne, Australia. She is passionate about designing effective eLearning resources for the education sector and industry training/reskilling programmes, including: conducting investigations on how individuals interpret text and graphics within Web-mediated instructional environments. She has designed many eLearning tools implemented through rich internet applications. Over the last decade, Dr. McKay has published extensively in the research fields of HCI and educational technology. In recognition of her contribution to the professional practice of IS research, she was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society (FACS).

John Lenarcic is a physicist and applied mathematician by training, an IT academic by fortunate accident and an armchair philosopher by conscious choice. His research interests include the philosophy of information systems, human-computer interaction and the cyber-anthropology of social networking. Dr Lenarcic is a frequent media commentator on issues dealing with social and ethical aspects of information technology with a particular emphasis on social media. He is also a frequent contributor to The Conversation:https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-lenarcic-1559