MOOC Adventures in Signal Processing: Bringing DSP to the era of massive open online courses

In higher education circles, 2012 may be known as the "year of the MOOC"; the launch of several high-profile initiatives, both for profit (Coursera, Udacity) and not for profit (edX), created an electrified feeling in the community, with massive open online courses (MOOCs) becoming the hottest new topic in academic conversation. The sudden attention was perhaps slightly forgetful of many notable attempts at distance learning that occurred before, from campus TV networks to well-organized online repositories of teaching material. The new mode of delivery, however, was ushered in by a few large-scale computer science courses, whose broad success triggered significant media attention [1].