The acronym MOOC was adapted from the fast rising area of interest “Massive Open Online Courses”.

MOOC first started emerging in 2008 and over the last six years these courses have gained momentum. Currently various MOOC platforms offer thousands of courses from universities and colleges around the world.  The course topics are seemingly limitless and range from business management such as
leadership; project management; and computer science to aerodynamics, or dog behaviour and nutrition.

MOOCs are usually free of charge, designed for large numbers, designed to encourage peer-to-peer learning and have no formal entry requirements and they are accessible to anyone with a computer and internet connection. Moocs typically have a start and end date. Certificates of completion are issued rather than course credits. However, this is also changing and in many instances courses can now be
verified for a small fee.

The online lessons can include:

• Video lessons
• Practical exercises (individually or in a group)
• Interaction with students of Moocs around the world

In Africa, MOOCs are considered to be a cost-free way to access excellent resources and learning experiences for less educationally privileged students.

University of Cape Town offers a number of MOOCs. Through its department âˆ' the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) âˆ' the very first set of UCT âˆ' run MOOCs were launched in early 2015. Currently, UCT has partnered with British based provider FutureLearn and American-based provider
Coursera to offer MOOCs.

http://www.cilt.uct.ac.za/cilt/moocs-project-uct

The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg has partnered with edX an online learning destination and MOOC founded by Harvard University and MIT in 2012. High-quality courses from the world’s best universities and institutions are offered to learners globally.

https://www.edx.org/school/witsx