Using MOOCs to Supplement Reading Courses: An Instructor’s View

Massive Online Open Courses, MOOCs, have been used to supplement courses in universities where the number of students is limited or the resources for teaching courses in certain fields are scarce. The paper discusses cases where MOOCs have been used to supplement small reading courses in engineering, which would not have been feasible or could not have been offered otherwise. The lessons learned from this arrangement are discussed, such as the requirements of the MOOCs, the roles of the students and the local instructor in such hybrid courses, how the courses may be conducted locally along with the MOOC which is conducted online, and different approaches for assessment and grading are suggested.