Taming the MOOS: Massive Online Open Seminars in Religion

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 coursework 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 seminar leader presence. The author here presents the questions attendant to and the results of a noncredit bearing massive online open seminar (MOOS) restricted to a specific topic within religious studies. More than 300 persons from five continents registered for the seminar and 292 remained throughout.