ABSTRACT

Online education faces many challenges, and the entry of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) into the mix poses many more. MOOCs follow standard progressions of academic inquiry, require both course work and assessment and often carry credit. Most MOOCs are in scientific and practical fields, with very few in the humanities or social sciences. As the professional debate about online education continues, MOOCs present unique opportunities for educational institutions and for individual professors. The many pedagogical issues relative to their planning and execution include the management and structure of discussion board activity and the seminar leader’s presence. This chapter presents the questions attendant to and the results of a noncredit Massive Online Open Seminar restricted to a specific topic within religious studies. More than 300 people from 5 continents registered for the seminar, and 292 remained until the end.