Integration of MOOCs in the Context of Library and Information Science Service in This Digital Age

In this digital era, massive open online courses (MOOCs) are receiving huge attention. MOOCs have moved beyond the academic circle. The high popularity and adaptation of MOOCs are only for being free and providing a totally new kind of learning experience. But there are the several challenges that the library and information science professionals will face as MOOCs take off. These include influencing faculties, copyright and licensing, delivery demographic and scale. This chapter shows how MOOCs integrate in the field of library and information science service in this digital age.

Open Educational Resources for MOOC

The higher education sector is being influenced by many factors, and a paradigm shift from conventional learning to virtual learning can easily be observed. MOOCs are an innovative initiative in promoting and imparting virtual learning to the end users that are restricted to pursue their higher education due to time, space, and money constraints. Open educational resources are an integral part of MOOCs, and to sustain the viability of MOOCs, quality open educational resources are a need of the hour. Issues related to MOOCs and open educational resources are being taken up by various governmental and non-governmental organizations in accelerating the e-learning concepts among their citizens and to fill up the gaps, if any, to avoid digital divide between the students of regular and open universities. India, being a developing country, needs to put more efforts into promoting the concepts of MOOCs and to popularizing the concepts. In this regard, the Government of India has introduced various platforms for open educational resources for enhancing and supporting MOOCs.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Features and Platforms

This chapter aims to provide an up-to-date snapshot of the current state of application called MOOCs, which are one of the subset of e-Learning. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) provide a new way of learning, which is open, participatory, distributed and lifelong. Various premier universities of the world are now offering courses in the form of MOOCs. The MHRD, Government of India has also started a MOOCs platform called SWAYAM. This chapter covers the definition of MOOCs, its features and different MOOC platforms being used for e-learning i.e. edX, Coursera, SWAYAM, Udacity.

Exploring a New Learning Environment Through Massive Open Online Course

As the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) concept is adding a new dimension to online learning and presenting a deeper impact in different disciplines including the library and information science area, library and information science professionals are producing scholarly literature on MOOC-related issues. Through this chapter, the authors gave the overview of the genesis of MOOCs in a new learning environment. This article gives the outlook of MOOCs, which are one of the latest trends in education. This chapter also explores various literature reviews on the conceptual framework and discusses the online courses in general and specifically for LIS domain.

Adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) for Librarians' Professional Development in Africa

Librarian development is the process of constantly strengthening professional attainment, broadening academic knowledge, and enhancing skills. This chapter explores how Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), can be used as continuing professional development of a librarian. This chapter narrates how MOOCs may offer a librarian an opportunity to upgrade their skills or further their education. It explains the benefits and challenges of the adoption of MOOCs for continuing professional development in developing countries and how this can be applied in developing economies. The major benefits of MOOCs to librarians are to help in professional and personal learning, but most librarians who wish to experience progressive career-development are yet to ascertain this fact. The chapter concludes that librarians have the opportunity to leverage this technology to improve their relevant professional skills in the 21st century. It is also established that the adoption and use of MOOCs among professional librarians in Africa is low as in advanced countries.

Skills of Library and Information Science Professionals in MOOCs Environment

This chapter argues whether the contemporary competencies and skills of library and information science professionals are sufficient in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) environment by conducting a SWOT analysis of the skills of library and information science professionals from a MOOCs perspective. It further discusses the category-wise and course step-wise skills of library and information science professionals needed in MOOCs settings and concludes with a discussion of how library and information science learners use and develop their skills that fit in MOOC environment in order to support MOOCs movement.

The Impact of MOOC on Education System

Recent developments in the field of MOOCs in India include the launching of the SWAYAM platform and the UGC guidelines to include MOOC courses through SWAYAM platform in the curriculum. The basic idea of MOOC is very simple; however, its accessibility is not a success as the theme promises. The worldwide success rate of MOOC is as low as 10% of the all registrations. This data is of very serious concern. On the brighter side of the discussion, its popularity has grown over time and more courses are now available for study. This chapter deals with the current status as well as the future scope of MOOC in India.

MOOCS Applications in Open Distance Leaning (ODL)

The term MOOC has been around since 2008, but the concept began to generate significant media attention and debate in 2012 with the launch of MOOCs offered by or in association with prestigious US institutions through providers such as EdX, Coursera, and Udacity. In response to widespread media attention and debate, uptake of MOOCs has since spread globally. Coursera and EdX have partnered with elite institutions in Europe, Asia, and Australasia, and new MOOC platforms have been developed including Future Learn in the UK, OpenupEd, and iVersity in Europe and Open2Study in Australia.

Massive Open Online Courses and MOOCs-SWAYAM

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are relatively new models for imparting high quality online education not only on different platforms but also multi-learners can simultaneously access from different geographical regions. Within a very short span these courses have gain momentum across the globe through prominent academic and research bodies by investing considerable efforts in developing, promoting and in delivering such courses. While MOOC courses are being imparted through popular global platforms like Coursera, Udacity, edx, Future Learn etc. by a number of top ranked Universities, SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Mind) is an Indian platform launched involving development of MOOCs e-contents. In this paper, attempts have been made to provide a state-of- the art of the growing popularity of MOOCs courses from several dimensions with specific emphasis on SWAYAM and its usage pattern. To carry out the present work requisite data has been collected from various sources like web portals, reports, SCOPUS database and Similar-Web's analytics tools.

MOOCs Theories, Trends, Critics, and Life Sciences Applications

While humankind has already reached the so-called zettabyte era in the data transactions, scientific knowledge needs to be transferred and distributed globally, without limitations. Mainly for the case of life sciences and medical fields, the treatment of chronic and lethal diseases requires open access to large databases and clinical trials from researchers across the world, but mostly an open and high-quality education for everyone. The solution has already been applied lately, through the establishment of the massive open online courses (MOOCs) that offer a free and unobstructed multilevel education to anyone and anywhere, using emerging IT techniques. Applications are vast and cover all technologies of today. However, is this true? Are MOOCs the solution to a free and open forum for knowledge sharing, giving the opportunity of education to people from low-income countries? In this chapter, MOOCs are discussed and analyzed in depth alongside the advantages and disadvantages of their application in the higher education.