A MOOC （massive open online course) is an online c...

A MOOC (massive open online course) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. MOOCs are a recent development in distance education and have now become a surging trend in higher education. These classes are aimed at expanding a university's reach from thousands of tuition-paying students who live in town, to millions of students around the world. In addition to traditional course materials, MOOCs provide interactive user forums to support interactions between students and professors. MOOCs can encourage communication among participants who bring a variety of viewpoints, knowledge, and skills to the course; inspire people to "try on" subjects that they wouldn't otherwise pursue or even try on education itself; provide multiple ways to engage with course material, encouraging multimodal learning that can address the needs of learners with a variety of learning styles; and inspire better teaching and use of technologies for face-to-face courses.