MOOCs revisited: still transformative or passing fad? / Joseph Rene Corbeil, Badrul H. Khan and Maria Elena Corbeil

Although Massive Open Online Courses have been in the media limelight for a relatively short time, their roots date back to the Open Access movement of the early 1990s as access to the World Wide Web was increasing and online publishing was coming of age. Once heralded the great disruptors of higher education, the hype surrounding MOOCs has fluctuated through multiple upsurges and slumps over the past 5 years (Corbeil & Corbeil, 2015). Are MOOCs the great disruptors of higher education? Are they a passing fad? What is the status of MOOCs today? Where will they be 5-10 years from now? This paper will attempt to answer these questions by providing a brief history of the MOOC phenomenon from its early beginnings, through its quick ascension, into a period of experimentation and soul-searching, concluding with a look at today’s MOOCs and where they are heading in the next five to ten years.