ABSTRACT
MOOCs represent the latest in the broadest global expansion of higher learning since the middle of the nineteenth century. Today, about two hundred million are enrolled in post-secondary education worldwide, up from nearly ninety million as recently as 1998. Recognizing the national interest in extending college education beyond the lucky few, in 1862, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act, establishing the land-grant system of colleges, funded by a federal-state alliance that at first set up eighteen state colleges. Today, as US conventional education enrollment has been slipping disconcertingly and as the pandemic continued to push away new recruits, in a surprise turnabout, MOOCs rose markedly, just at the moment when on-campus college enrollment stumbled. Perhaps the most effective and richest exercise of blended learning is the inventive introduction of asynchronous and synchronous modes, adopting the incredible array of applications as course content and pedagogy require.
