Welcome to the moocspace: a proposed theory and taxonomy for massive open online courses

This paper describes a theoretical framework and feature taxonomy for MOOCs, with the goal of developing a shared language for researchers and designers. The theoretical framework characterizes MOOC design goals in terms of stances towards knowledge, the learner, and assessment practices, taking as a starting point the affordances of the Web and digital learning environments. The taxonomy encompasses features, course structures, and audiences. It can be mapped onto the theoretical framework, used by researchers to identify similar courses for cross-course comparisons, and by instructional designers to guide design decisions in different dimensions. Both the theory and the taxonomy are intended in the spirit of proposal, to be refined based on feedback from MOOC researchers, designers, and technologists.