Library Guides: Open educational resources (OER): MOOCs and open courses

What is a MOOC?

A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course freely available to anyone who wants to participate. MOOCs usually:

are free
have very large class sizes
vary in length
vary in workload and time commitment.

MOOC search engines

Search for MOOCs across platforms:

Class Central
Search by subject. Ratings and reviews are available.

MOOC platforms

Note: Many courses are free to participate for the length of the course. You may need to pay a fee for extended access or to get a certificate.

edX
Offers high-quality courses from the world’s best universities and institutions.
Open Learning Initiative
The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is funded by Carnegie Mellon University.
OpenupEd
Self-paced courses and scheduled MOOCs in a range of languages.

These course platforms have high quality courses with free participation but also charge fees for courses:

FutureLearn
Diverse selection of courses from leading universities and institutions. Many of the Short courses are free to access. Click on a course to check.
Coursera
Courses are taught by instructors from some of the world’s best universities and educational institutions.
Udacity
Offers nanodegree programs and credentials.

Find open courses

Open courses, sometimes referred to as OpenCourseWare, are online courses created gratis by Universities. Most are freely available to use under Creative Commons Licences.

OEGlobal (formerly OpenEducationConsortium)
Search for open courses via the OpenEducation Consortium
MIT OpenCourseWare
Web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content
Open Michigan
Open Michigan's open educational resources include many open courses
TUDelft OpenCourseWare
Search courses arranged according to Themes and Programs
ROAM - Repository of open and affordable materials
From Penn State University. Freely available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license.