What is Massive Open Online Course (or MOOC)

Karl Marx wrote about the importance of the worker in the role of machinery. Further, Marx discusses how machines replace the role of the factory workers. With the workers replaced, the care of the machines is left to technicians, who continually repair and maintain the machines. MOOCs exist under similar circumstances. Just as a machine may replace workers on a production line, a single MOOC replaces classroom instructors. Thus, the teacher/designer, the one who maintains the MOOC, exists in similar conditions as Marx's worker and Ellul's technician. Using a Marxist lens, one can examine closer how these sorts of theoretical concerns espoused by Marx, Ellul, and other thinkers in technology consider the design and use of MOOCs. The MOOC must either be constantly updated (with new and fresh information) or perish (to be replaced by a better MOOC). In this chapter, the author will flush out other challenges within the scope of MOOC maintenance, delivery, and other concerns as they connect to MOOC infrastructure and issue of maintenance.