Quality in Open Online higher Education: from Virtual Classrooms to MOOCs

Currently there are numerous works and research on quality of open learning and LMS. Quality-centered learning has been a model used from the start. We wonder whether those results and discursive practices imply that what we considered criteria and features of pedagogic quality for learning based in LMS could be equally valid for MOOCs. We also wonder whether all that could also be applied to what has been worked on ubiquitous learning, social learning and instructional design. We conclude that a continuous line should exist between the features we asked in the traditional form for online learning and MOOCs, and we give the same reasons to support them that held true for the former. We reach this conclusion based on a detailed analysis of arguments and theoretical basis of the original model, of the nature of MOOCs, and in general of the new open higher education. The reference and precedent of this paper is found in another one dated in 2003 which concluded with some instruments for the evaluation of quality in platforms and learning management systems in higher education. A new system for the evaluation of MOOCs and online open courses has been created as a result.