Abstract

There has been much discussion of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the last few years. This paper will argue MOOCs may be no more than new content in old containers. Even where the lessons of MOOCs have been applied to smaller, more personalized formats such as SPOCS (Small Personal Online Courses), the delivery container of content has not changed so as to use fully the new technology and new ways of education. This paper calls for new ways of creating learning in a new container called the KERC, or Knowledge Exchange and Retrieval Course. The discussion takes into account current practices about technological facilitation for learning and recommends a more engaging method based on social media. It also reviews past practices to see what lessons may be learned.