ABSTRACT
This chapter critically examines the complexity of the labour involved in making MOOCs, in particular labour that becomes invisible. It raises important questions about the true cost of making university courses 'free' and 'open' online. The chapter situates itself within existing trends in the field of higher education studies concerned with labour force dynamics; in particular the discussions of institutional pressures of being an academic and increasing levels of casual or short-term contract-based employment. It contributes to a critical discourse about MOOCs and the inequalities experienced by those producing and managing MOOC content. The chapter describes some of the types of labour observed while building the 'How to Survive your PhD' MOOC on edX in 2014. It also draws on experiences of designing, building and running the MOOC at the Australian National University in late 2015. The chapter describes some of the invisible work performed by satellite staff in MOOC through examining the personal reflections by the MOOC moderators.
