Word of the week

Published August 27, 2016

Words are very powerful — so become empowered by enhancing your vocabulary! Check out this week’s word ‘MOOC’, a new entrant to the Oxford Dictionary

MOOC (Noun)

Definition: Massive Open Online Course (MOOC); a course of study made available over the internet without charge to a very large number of people.

The term MOOC was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island in response to a course called 'Connectivism and Connective Knowledge' which consisted of 25 tution-paying students as well as over 2200 online students from the general public who paid nothing.

Examples:

• “Anyone who decides to take a MOOC simply logs on to the website and signs up.”

• “The leaders of the MOOC revolution have been the likes of Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Princeton.”

• “Werbach, a legal studies and business ethics professor, is teaching a MOOC this summer.”

• “From the beginning, MOOC providers have struggled with the issue of cheating.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 27th, 2016

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