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There are various factors for the exponentially increasing popularity of MOOCs. Some of the most important ones are the format and pedagogical base (Bersin, J., 2013, Lackner&Kopp, 2014, Shah, D., 2014) which consider MOOCs to be very suitable for teaching and learning of concepts, methods and theories, for obtaining practical skills and competences and last but not least, for boosting the sense of innovation and the creativity of the educational process participants. Moreover, MOOCs offer a diverse community of participants the opportunity to share ideas and get deeply involved in the subject via a rich variety of synchronous and asynchronous online activities.
According to Norvig (2012), MOOCs have had a remarkable ability to attract large numbers of learners to a vigorous online learning community. The constant availability makes MOOCs an excellent resource not only for students, but also for all life-long learners and modern professionals striving for on-going career development and personal improvement. MOOCs have always been a great format to exchange ideas among participants, to study and develop creative processes and foster innovation. This is due to several factors, including the fact that participants in Massive Open Online Courses are usually very diverse. The fact that these courses are provided for free or at low prices (which is their other big advantage) enables both people with no formal education and those with a degree from a higher education institution to be able to embrace the opportunities (Green S. 2015).
Unlike the traditional classroom setting at a university, participants from all over the world, at any age and with different interests, abilities and backgrounds can enrol in an online course. Furthermore, studying in a MOOC is a combination of synchronous and asynchronous activities in the online format. This gives participants the ability to receive input from the teacher in the course, reflect on the topic at different places and times and interact with the course community subsequently. Depending on the pedagogical design of the online course and the platform features, one can substantially increase participants’ innovation and creative outputs by simply enabling them to unleash their creative potential.
MOOCs centred around creativity and innovation live and die with social interaction and activities. Given the developments in both instructional design and platform features fostering peer learning and activities, we expect the quality of these types of MOOCs to improve greatly. Many experts from creative fields were more resistant to offer MOOCs than e.g. experts in the field of computer science or natural science, because they were believed MOOCs could only work for “right and wrong” type courses.
Given the developments in instructional design and technical features we expect more experts from these fields to join the MOOC wave and start offering courses. This will lead to a growing variety of education and professional training options available online through MOOCs to students, professionals and life-long learners and provide them with a rich range of opportunities to improve their creative and innovative potential and thus their career prospects, professional development and their life as a whole.
To find the right course for one’s learning style might not always be easy, but given the rise of rating sites for MOOCs (e.g. Class Central) and the option to just try out different free courses, learners will be able to choose the right courses. One recommendation to end: when trying out a “creative” MOOCs it often makes sense to not just look at some videos, but to take a quick dive into the community and the activities, since these are even more important in this field than in other MOOCs.