ABSTRACT
The emergence of massive open online courses (MOOCs) on an unprecedented scale was hailed as an avenue for achieving global scale in educational reform. Professor Amin Saberi developed a new MOOC platform, along with co-founder Farnaz Ronaghi, called Stanford Venture-lab. The Stanford Venture-lab was a unique MOOC platform based on social learning theory and emphasized group projects. The MOOC, which started in October 2012, was entitled 'Designing a New Learning Environment' (DNLE). In some cases, school district staffs would join the MOOC together and form groups with a common focus. However, in most cases, teams were composed of complete strangers. Much of the debate around MOOCs has been due to the wide gulf between the hype and what is currently achievable. The DNLE MOOC was spontaneous, self-organizing, and implicitly treasured for its short duration. It was like a firefly that, recognizing its limited time, burned as brightly as it could during its brief lifespan.
