A
massive open online course (
MOOC ) is an
online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the
web. In addition to traditional course materials such as filmed lectures, readings, and
problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive user forums to support community interactions among students, professors, and
teaching assistants (TAs). MOOCs are a recent and widely researched development in
distance education which were first introduced in 2008 and emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012.