Software Agents in Large Scale Open E-learning: A Critical Component for the Future of Massive Online Courses (MOOCs)

MOOCs or massive open online courses are a recent trend in online education. They combine online resources with social tools and have unique challenges due to the large number of simultaneous participants. This paper analyzes some of the challenges in the areas of MOOC design, delivery and assessment. Then the authors present an approach using software agents to overcome some of the challenges that have been identified, as well as optimize efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure the pedagogical effectiveness and educational quality of large scale online learning courses. This paper is a first step towards research in the usage of software agents in massive online courses that we hope will shed more light on potential real life applications.