According to Wikipedia, a massive open online course (MOOC) is a type of online course aimed at large-scale participation and open access via the web. MOOCs are a recent development in the area of distance education, and a progression of the kind of open education ideals suggested by open educational resources.

Useful resources

An overview of the MOOC's development is featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education - “What You Need to Know About MOOC's.”

Tony Bates, a well known expert in elearning, has written - “What’s right and what’s wrong about Coursera-style MOOCs.”

An excellent overview and analysis of MOOCs has just been published by Sir John Daniel -”Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of Myth, Paradox and Possibility.”

Image courtesy of The Chronicle of Higher Education

3 October 2012