Mobile and Accessible Learning for MOOCs

Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. Introduction Participation by a massive number of learners is one defining characteristic of MOOCs; the other is that courses should be open. The initial concept of a MOOC came from previous developments in open educational resources and open universities (Daniel, 2012). Daniel quotes the injunction of Ivan Illich that an educational system should 'provide all who want to learn with access to available resources at any time in their lives; empower all who want to share what they know to find those who want to learn it from them; and, finally furnish all who want to present an issue to the public with the opportunity to make their challenge known' (Illich, 1971, p. 75). This presents technical, educational, and social challenges to modern providers of online learning. The technical challenge is to enable access to educational resources for people where and whenever they want to learn, not only immediately, but at any time in their lives. As a learner, how can I have confidence not only that I can gain access to a course whatever my location, time and physical ability, but also that the course will continue to remain