“Perspectives on Open and Distance Learning: Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice” is one in a series of publications by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) examining Open Educational Resources (OER). The book, initiated by the UNESCO/COL Chair in OER, describes the movement in detail, providing readers with insight into OER’s significant benefits, its theory and practice, and its achievements and challenges. The 16 chapters of the volume, published in May 2013, have been written by some of the leading international experts on the subject and are organised into four parts by theme:

By Roger Esteller-Curto, Pilar Escuder-Mollon. The EduSenior project aims to improve the quality of educational institutions that currently are offering courses and activities or wish to implement a learning activity aimed to senior learners (65+ or retired). Supported by the European Commission’s the Lifelong Learning  Programme, EduSenior is offering from June to September 2013 the free online course “Senior education: A Quality of Life approach to assessing educational institutions”, targeted to professionals, decision makers, students and, in general, anybody interested in the topic of adult and senior education. The virtual classroom will open on May 27th, and the course will start on June 3rd. The course is 100% virtual and will be offered in English and Spanish (different groups). Participants will also have the option to choose the intensity which best suits their needs:

Authors: Tharindu Liyanagunawardena, Shirley Williams, Andrew Adams. Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a recent but hugely popular phenomenon in the online learning world. They are hailed by many as a solution for the developing world’s lack of access to education because MOOCs can provide learning opportunities to a massive number of learners from anywhere in the world as long as they can access the course through Internet.
However, a close consideration of the ability of learners from most developing countries to make use of MOOCs seems to contradict this rhetoric. This paper discusses features of MOOCs and looks at them from a developing countries’ perspective to conclude that due to a complicated set of conditions (‘access’, language, computer literacy among others) prevailing in developing countries, MOOCs may not be a viable solution for education for a large proportion of people in these areas of the world. The paper further shows the need for more data on the demographics of MOOC participants from developing countries to form a better understanding of MOOCs role in educating people from developing countries.
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Authors: Li Yuan, Stephen Powell. The opportunity that Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) offer for cost effective massification of learning has generated significant interest from governments, higher education institutions (HEI) and commercial organisations. A growing number of HEI have been involved in experimenting with MOOCs for the purposes of expanding access, marketing and branding, as well as the potential of developing new revenue streams. The motivation for some MOOC providers is a philanthropic one and for others a business proposition. However, in both cases, there is the challenge of finding a viable business model that allows for sustainability of MOOC provision.
This paper will use the theory of disruptive innovation (Bower and Christensen, 1995) to examine MOOCs development and how their approach could be used to help institutions explore innovative approaches for teaching and learning and to develop new business models in order to gain competitive advantages in the education market. MOOCs provide institutions with a vehicle to think creatively and innovatively to explore new business models and flexible learning paths in HE provision. However, there is a need to rethink current higher education structures and policies and working practices that obstruct innovation. This includes funding arrangements and the ability to disaggregate teaching from  assessment and accreditation for differential pricing and pursuit of marketing activities.
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Author: David T. Boven. Though the history of massive open online courses is very short, scholars can gain insights by looking at similar movements in the past. This paper examines several historical moments in education to develop an understanding of MOOCs and their future.
Specifically, this paper explores two  developments that resemble the discourse surrounding MOOCs—the emergence of studia particulare and generale in medieval Europe and the monitorial educational systems of the early nineteenth century. It also looks at several other educational innovations that have been seen as disruptive to the status quo of education. These include land-grant institutions in the United States in addition to the University Without Walls and open education movements of the 1960s and 1970s. These previous movements are very instructive as proponents of MOOC educational systems develop strategies for promoting MOOCs and giving them lasting resonance in the digital age.
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Authors: Lourdes Guàrdia, Marcelo Maina, Albert Sangrà. The debate around Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is much more focused on the social, institutional, technological and economical aspects than on the need for development of new pedagogical approaches that provide consistent guidance on how to design for this emergent educational scenario.
A new understanding of knowledge production and learning challenges the core of learning design, demanding innovative and appropriate approaches to teaching and learning. We present a set of learning design principles drawn from the learner’s perspective. They focus on empowering learners in networked environments for fostering critical thinking and collaboration, developing competence based outcomes, encouraging peer assistance and assessment through social appraisal, providing strategies and tools for self-regulation, and finally using a variety of media and ICTs to create and publish learning resources and outputs.
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Authors: Jan Blom, Himanshu Verma, Nan Li, Afroditi Skevi, Pierre Dillenbourg. We report about two ongoing studies, which challenge the individualistic model of MOOC based learning. MOOC usage is embedded in the context of collocated study groups.
The ability to pause a lecture and discuss its contents with peers creates learning opportunities. Learning by explaining has been proved effective through many empirical studies. We investigate the best way to configure these study groups with different tools.
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Authors: Emily Purser, Angela Towndrow, Ary Aranguiz. We report on peer-to-peer learning online, describing the role of cooperative, student managed groupings in successful learn-by-MOOC experiences.
We found that to expand learners’ potential in digital culture, it helps to by-pass traditional notions and tools of online learning support, and embrace networked social media.
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Author: Patrick McAndrew. Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) give an opportunity for providing access to subjects of mass interest but also allow more niche subjects (Beavon, Commas- Quinn, de los Arcos & Hauck, 2013) to reach a larger audience than the more usual context of small-scale post-graduate courses.
The OLDS-MOOC (Open Learning Design Studio-MOOC) is an example of such a course. Developed with funding from Jisc, in January 2013 a collaborative team from several universities presented a nine-week online course. The subject matter is learning design as an organised approach to online learning. This report considers the way in which the course was structured around as a project-based “pMOOC” in its approach to learning design, while also including.
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