[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-599769-105":59,"doc-detail-599769-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","a-taxonomy-of-massive-open-online-courses","A Taxonomy of Massive Open Online Courses","","Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become a major direction in distance education, evolving from the open education resources movement. This article reviews how early cMOOCs changed in use, naming, and structure, and how MOOCs can be categorized by multiple dimensions. It proposes a new taxonomy using two definitional dimensions—massiveness and openness—and derives a two-dimensional matrix with four categories to support MOOC providers, educators, students, and researchers.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-taxonomy-of-massive-open-online-courses/599769/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/a-taxonomy-of-massive-open-online-courses/599769.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"PakDamar76","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What two dimensions does the article use to build its MOOC taxonomy?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The article positions MOOCs using two dimensions: massiveness and openness, then discusses how these dimensions define different MOOC varieties.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How are MOOCs commonly characterized in terms of structure and access?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"MOOCs are online courses that anyone can join from anywhere, usually for free, combining short video lectures with assignments, computer-graded tests, and online discussion forums.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why do MOOCs receive both positive and negative evaluations?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"They are praised for widening access to elite educational opportunities and addressing rising higher-education costs, but criticized for varying quality, low completion rates, and limited research on their learning effectiveness.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},599769,1792171064,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},962090893057,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","A Taxonomy of Massive Open Online Courses  \nOlga Pilli  \nGirne American University, North Cyprus  \nWilfried Admiraal  \nLeiden University, The Netherlands  \nAbstract  \nMassive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a new approach to distance education, which originated from the open education resources (OER) movement, are becoming widespread throughout the world. Over time, early versions of cMOOCs have undergone changes in terms of use, name and structure. In their short life, MOOCs have been categorized into different taxonomies depending on, for example, their types, pedagogies, orientations, target participants, resources and content. This article proposes a new taxonomy to position MOOCs on two dimensions: massiveness and openness, which brings a fresh perspective for understanding varieties of MOOCs based on the two definitional elements. The dimensions of massiveness and openness are identified and discussed. Based on these, we conclude two dimensional matrix with four categories: (i) small scale and less open, (ii) small scale and more open, (iii) large scale and less open, (iv) large scale and more open. This classification provides a comprehensive description of different types of MOOCs which could be helpful to answer the necessities of MOOC providers, educators, students, and researchers.  \nKeywords: Massive open online courses; MOOCs; Open learning; Distance education;  \nOnline courses; Taxonomy of MOOCs  \nIntroduction  \nThe University of Chicago launched the first distance learning program in 1982 (Miller, 2014) . As of the 1990s, however, a plethora of educational organizations have started offering online courses. One recent development in the field of distance education is Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which offer free education for the masses. The first known MOOC was created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) OpenCourseWare in 2002 to provide free web access to MIT course materials. Currently, MOOC platforms are shared by respected universities that provide open learning materials by utilizing cloud computing systems: Stanford’s Coursera ([www.coursera.org](www.coursera.org)), founded by Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, and Harvard and MIT’s edX ([www.edx.org](www.edx.org)), founded by Anant Agarwal (Maringe & Sing, 2014) . Additionally, Udacity ([www.udacity.org](www.udacity.org)), Udemy ([www.udemy.com](www.udemy.com)) and Australian MOOEC  \n( [piersim.com/mooec](piersim.com/mooec)) have been offering open online courses since 2012 (Wilson & Gruzd, 2014) . Currently, there are more than 80 platforms that offer MOOCs, cooperating with the world's leading universities, leading scholars and industry experts in all areas.  \nMOOCs are online courses in which anyone, anywhere can participate, usually for free. They are made up of short video lectures combined with assignments, computer-graded tests and online  \ndiscussion forums (Hoy, 2014) . These massive courses typically share some common features: open access using the Internet, free of charge, asynchronous, interactive user forums and the opportunity to receive a certificate (McDonald & Zlomek, 2014) . MOOCs are built on the idea that “information is everywhere”, extending access to education. MOOCs are courses but also support open, distributed, participatory and lifelong networked learning. The underlying idea of a MOOC is accessibility since anyone can participate and collaborate either to acquire new knowledge or to expand existing knowledge. This implies that MOOCs have the potential to create a pathway for life-long learning processes in the future (Seta, Kukulska-Hulme & Arrigo, 2014) .  \nMOOCs have been praised for bringing the educational opportunities of elite institutions to a wider audience, and for addressing the issue of increasing costs of higher education. However, MOOCS also have been criticized for their varying quality and low completion rates since the completion rate for many courses is less than 15%, and for the limited amount of","cbCaicR7HD67h9Bx","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicR7HD67h9Bx","pdf",491827,18,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Early distance learning and the rise of MOOCs\n## Core characteristics of MOOCs\n## Praise and criticism of MOOCs\n## Open issues and evaluation challenges","[{\"question\":\"What two dimensions does the article use to build its MOOC taxonomy?\",\"answer\":\"The article positions MOOCs using two dimensions: massiveness and openness, then discusses how these dimensions define different MOOC varieties.\"},{\"question\":\"How are MOOCs commonly characterized in terms of structure and access?\",\"answer\":\"MOOCs are online courses that anyone can join from anywhere, usually for free, combining short video lectures with assignments, computer-graded tests, and online discussion forums.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do MOOCs receive both positive and negative evaluations?\",\"answer\":\"They are praised for widening access to elite educational opportunities and addressing rising higher-education costs, but criticized for varying quality, low completion rates, and limited research on their learning effectiveness.\"}]","A Taxonomy of Massive Open Online Courses | PDF",1792089403,45]