大規模網路開放課程(MOOCs)的崛起與發展

Brief History and Development of MOOCs

有關數位學習的論述與措施相當廣泛與多元，對教育工作者之思維與教學都產生相當程度的影響。目前備受關注者如電子書、電子書包及教育雲服務等相當多元，格式不一，常讓教師無所適從，應用也皆未成熟。隨著網路科技突飛猛進，網路社群的專業交流與互動，以及知識分享及創用CC 觀念的普及，開放式課程應運而生，而開放式課程搭配互動與評量機制後，又產生了大規模網路開放課程，此種最新發展之數位學習課程在短時間內即遍布全球，成為目前數位學習最具主導性的趨勢之一。
本文首先扼要說明大規模網路開放課程的崛起， 並介紹幾個知名之MOOCs 教學平台。值此MOOCs 的發展方興未艾之際，樂見教育部也於此時宣布推動為期四年之全面性數位學習推動計畫，其中「推動磨課師(MOOCs)」子計畫係五項計畫之一。以台灣之教育及IT 水準，發展MOOCs 應無問題，但受限於語文( 中文) 與使用者市場，要推廣到全球會受到較多的限制。因此，在推動之際宜審慎規劃，也期盼各界積極參與並給予支持!

Approaches to developing e-learning and its implementation strategies are diverse and complex that have certain effects on teachers’ knowledge and practice. With so many IT devices such as eBook, eBag, cloud service in education attracting a great deal of attention but continuing to be adopted in its various forms, schoolteachers tend to get confused. This continuing expansion of Internet technologies, multiple interactions within the internet community, use of the Internet as a knowledge sharing tool, and popularity of creative commons are pushing for a change in the traditional information education. OpenCourseWare (OCW) therefore is available to promote shared knowledge. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offer automated assessment tools and some form of interaction with course staff have gained increasing popularity and become one of the very recent trends in e-learning.
This paper introduces a short history of MOOCs and some well-known platforms. As MOOCs grow in popularity, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education has initiated a four-year comprehensive improvement overall project for e-learning, and one of the five sub-projects is “Improvement Plan for MOOCs”. Taiwan has potential to develop MOOCs because of its educational and information technology standards; and yet it has a practical limit of market size and promotion of Chinese-language MOOCs to the world. Careful consideration should be given to implementation decisions being taken at this program and we hope to see more active participation and support.