by Sarah Kellogg, Nature
In the past couple of years, academic institutions, policy centres and research institutes around the world have become partners with MOOC providers including Coursera, edX in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Udacity in Mountain View (see Comment, page 275). Coursera has so far registered 9.5 million enrolments; edX counts some 1 million. Institutions or instructors looking to go it alone can post lecture videos on YouTube. Instructors may feel daunted by the challenge of making a popular course shorter, livelier and easily understood on a computer screen. However, experienced MOOC designers say that the task is well worth the effort, because the courses allow for experimentation on a grand scale. Although it does not generally bring in extra pay, MOOC work gives teachers a chance to develop fresh methods for teaching science, bringing it to new, uninitiated audiences and encouraging cutting-edge discussions.
http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7458-369a
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