Massive open online courses (MOOCs), which first appeared in the USA in 2008, have, of late, been hyped in the higher education space, and have evolved substantially world-wide in the last few years. In view of the fact that past applications of technological tools in education have not redeemed the high expectations for innovation, an interesting question is whether this latest development in the use of ICT will fundamentally change and improve higher education. A particularly important issue concerns how and to what degree it will have an impact on policies and practices of learning and teaching in higher education institutions. In this volume, researchers in the field of educational technology, MOOC developers and users critically analys...