I am working at the University of Derby and this year I was put in charge of the new project - MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses).

As I have never heard about them before, it came as the huge surprise. There is a massive number of short online courses listed online and available for free.

I thought to share this with you all as it is a great opportunity to develop your skills and knowledge at no extra cost.

Another great thing about them is a vast number of subjects, you can find a MOOC on just about anything, for example, our university has so far launched MOOCs on dementia, digital literacy and an innovation in operations management.

You can find a lot of information on MOOCs on our website.

I wonder if anyone else has heard of them and if anyone has completed one at all?

I took part in a MOOC last year, How to Survive your PhD, which was designed and co-ordinated by the writer of the Thesis Whisperer blog. One of the strengths of that one was that it encouraged people to form online groups and share their experiences - it has spawned quite a few on-going groups and activities.

This is exactly what I thought. I just can't believe that they are still not widely spread and so many people are completely unaware of their existence!

They're not exactly a new thing - I think Khan Academy has been around for about a decade.

They have many benefits, but they don't suit every person or topic. Overall they probably represent an innovative addition to the education sector rather than a complete transformation of it. I've participated in a couple (although not finished them due to competing commitments) and will probably do more in the future, but will also continue to pursue face to face training as and when.

A word of advice - if you're employed to promote them, try not to over-state your prior lack of awareness of the medium! A lot of the people you're trying to pitch to *will* have heard of them.

Agreed HazyJane, I think most people on here will have heard of them...

Personally, I don't think they live up to the hype. There is no replacement for actually attending university. Plus, I prefer to read to learn; watching videos about something is too slow for me.