In the past couple of years, massive online open courses (MOOCs) have become a trend among
many members
of the educational online community. This is particularly true of faculty who are
interested in open educational resources.
The course Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK),
by
Stephen Downes, has been offered
at least three times since 2008, and ad
ditional MOOCs have been offered that cater to a variety of
learning topics including digital storytelling, mobile learning (mLearning), learning analytics, the future
of education, and instructional ideas for online success, just to name a few.
The struct
ure and design of each MOOC varies. For example, the primary means of communication in
a MOOC may be:
•
A learning management system such as Moodle or Blackboard
•
Online groups such as Yahoo or Google groups
•
An aggregation of various distributed platforms, s
uch as blogs and Twitter, or using
gRSShopper (pronounced
grasshopper
)
A MOOC may provide specific content to learn; however, it is more common for MOOCs to provide
learning objectives, or topics, and a list of resources to guide learners to those objectiv
es rather than
providing didactic content for learners to consume. MOOCs provide opportunities to engage in
learning while connecting with others.
Learners who are new to MOOCs, and who are not familiar with self
-
directed learning, often struggle
to find t
heir place within a MOOC. The majority of MOOCs require that the learner be self
-
directed
and proactive in the learning process. In this article, we offer a few recommendations that will help
learners make the most of a MOOC experience. In addition to enga
ging in the course material, they
provide learners with an opportunity to develop or expand their personal learning networks (PLN).
Learner success is enhanced by learner actions before, during, and after the MOOC.

Keywords

learners · MOOC · online learning · pesonal learning network