By Kelly Ng. More organisations in Asia are joining the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform to provide web-based education aimed at large-scale interactive participation and open access via the internet.
Last month, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), one of the biggest universities in Singapore with 33,500 students, repackaged ‘Introduction to Forensic Science’ as a free online course for anyone in the world. More...

In the last few months the number of published research papers, which focus on MOOCs has significantly increased and this looks to continue.
In May eLearning Papers published a special issue on MOOCs – MOOCs and Beyond
In June the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching published a special issue on MOOCs -  and this included a paper that I worked on with colleagues from Oxford Brookes University.
Another special issue this summer came from the Research and Practice in Assessment Journal – MOOCs and Technology
There has been a call for papers on MOOCs for the EMOOCS2014 conference in Switzerland in February …
… and a similar call from the journal Distance Education for a special issue to be published in April 2014. More...

By Alastair Creelman. In an ideal world where educators and institutions share resources with Creative Commons licenses that regulate reuse and adaptation there would be no problems with digital rights in MOOCs. The original connectivist MOOCs were all based on open educational resources and participants were well versed in the principles of openness. However the newer MOOC variations come in 50 shades of openness and there are suddenly complex copyright issues that participating institutions and educators need to be aware of.  More...

By Geoffrey A. Fowler. If the MOOC movement were in college, it would be time for a freshman report card. The assessment: great potential, but still in need of remedial work.
MOOCs, or massive open online courses, went mainstream last year, heralded as the next great technological disruption in education. The big idea is that putting lecture videos and interactive course work on the Web will make it possible for top-notch university education to reach more students and allow for different styles of learning.
Already, MOOCs have shown they can attract students in huge numbers. The largest provider, Coursera, has drawn five million, and nonprofit provider edX more than 1.3 million. And while the majority are still based in the U.S., their learners come from all over the globe: Among edX's students, 9% came from Africa and 12% from India. More...

By Liu Jiayi.The massive open online course site forms partnership with China's open.163.com, social media site Guokr, and online translator community Yeeyan, to extend its online courses to the Chinese market. Online education services provider Coursera has partnered China's open.163.com to offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the Chinese market. Itself a MOOC site established by two computer science professors from Standford University, Coursera hopes the partnership will provide Chinese consumers better access to its content on one of China's most popular MOOC sites, open.163.com, which also hosts videos from TED and Khan Academy, reported Ctocio. More...

Une circulaire présente les priorités interministérielles pour la formation professionnelle des agents de l’Etat pour les plans de formation ministériels et leurs déclinaisons par service aux plans national et territorial. Elle comporte en annexe des référentiels de formation, cadres de déclinaison des priorités interministérielles.
Sept priorités ont été fixées : accompagner les gestionnaires des ressources humaines dans la construction de leur plan de GPEEC, former à la démarche d’évaluation et de prévention des risques psychosociaux, former l’encadrement aux dimensions santé au travail, prévention des risques et amélioration des conditions de vie au travail, professionnaliser les acteurs de la chaîne achat, accompagner la professionnalisation des chefs de projet en charge des systèmes d’information et de communication, connaître l’organisation administrative et de l’environnement professionnel, former les gestionnaires RH à la gestion statutaire et former les agents publics à la déontologie.
Devront aussi être poursuivis les actions sur les questions de légistique, l’émergence des nouveaux besoins de formation liés au développement de l’ONP et aux enjeux du développement durable, ainsi que la sensibilisation à l’égalité professionnelle femme/homme.
Circulaire du 13 septembre 2013.