Developments in MOOC Technologies and Participation Since 2012: Changes Since 'The Year of the MOOC'

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are a recent approach to education, with much buzz generated around them by technology investors, educators, and the news media alike. However, despite the hype and the subsequent enrollment of millions of learners into MOOCs, the following years experienced a reversal of energy as the results of studies on the effects and costs of MOOCs began to reveal that MOOCs were not a panacea to formal educations’ challenges. Now, in 2016, as MOOCs continue to serve millions of students and there are more courses available than before, key questions persist about the efficacy, relevance, and value of MOOCs. This chapter examines the state of MOOCs between 2012 and 2016 and discusses advances in knowledge around MOOCs that have been observed from empirical research during this period. We build upon our previous review of MOOCs that was originally written in 2013 (Riel & Lawless, 2015), as a large number of studies focused on MOOC technologies, efficacy, and goals have been published in the short time between 2012 and 2016.