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Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, have become a global phenomenon. Tens of thousands of people have enrolled into free online courses provided by some of the world's most prestigious universities. As they are such a recent creation, discussion about the value and the operation of MOOCs has been predominately in the general media and academic blogosphere. Many of those who have been pontificating about the good (or evil) of MOOCs have been doing so without having experienced one as a participant or organiser. This paper investigates the views of academics who participated as students in a MOOC. A survey and follow up focus group of academics are used to discuss the pedagogical design and also the broader implications that MOOCs have for the tertiary education sector.

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.