MOOCs: is Massive Online Course the future of Learning?

Paper presented at TEFLIN International Seminar, August 27th 2013, Universitas Indonesia Jakarta

Summary:
Since its first introduction in 2008, many believed that MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are going to be the future of learning in college level. Its general ideas by providing knowledge and courses for free to massive number of learners have changed the way how education business run, which can also dramatically change the learning methods and principles known for hundreds of years. Recently, people are starting to accept MOOCs as a way of learning. Coursera, one of the leading MOOC providers, has reached more than 3,114,000 course takers in less than 8 months. When the popularity of MOOCs is getting higher and more leading universities in the world take part in it, the possibility of MOOCs as essential part of teaching-learning process is worth to consider.

This paper tries to see the possibilities of how MOOCs can be implemented in Higher Education Institutions in Indonesia including for learning foreign languages. Besides discussing about its strengths, weaknesses, potentials, and challenges, this paper also explores to see how MOOCs can be used for other purposes such as teachers’ professional development program and the standardization of learning materials and courses in the Higher Education level.