Perspectives on MOOC Quality-An account of the EFQUEL MOOC Quality Project

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) represent a recent stage in open education. In more and more institutions they are moving from an early entrepreneurial stage into the reality. The rapidly rising participation levels, high visibility and a growing community worldwide prompt a number of important questions. The MOOC Quality Project, an initiative of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning (EFQUEL), addresses the question of quality and MOOCs, not by trying to addresses the question of quality and MOOCs, not by trying to find one answer which fits all, but by trying to stimulate a discourse on the issue of quality in MOOCs. A series of blogposts by eleven worldwide experts and stakeholders in the field addressed the issues from each participant’s viewpoint. From twelve experts’ blog contributions key quality areas were identified by way of document analysis, amongst which were addressing a massive (and often unspecified) target group, mixing formal and informal learners, learning across contexts, transparency and openness, peer-to-peer pedagogy, choice-based learning and learner support