18 September 2013 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Publishers

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com) has introduced a preview issue of MOOCs Forum, a new publication dedicated to the development and sustainability of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).  The burgeoning coverage of MOOCs in the press extols their potential. But within the communities of education, industrial learning, developers, investors and broad student demographics, the credibility, standards, protocols, utility and value of MOOCs are being questioned, researched and developed.  MOOCs Forum is committed to providing and promoting dialogue, debate and discussion of the many process and content issues that will eventually impact the success and value of MOOCs.  The objective and unbiased content will include letters to the editor, point-counterpoint discussions, perspectives and position papers, case studies, and roundtable discussions. MOOCs Forum will be available online with Open Access options and in print. The articles in the preview issue are available on the MOOCs Forum website (http://www.liebertpub.com/mooc).

The insightful Roundtable Discussion included in the preview issue, “State-of-the-Field” (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/mooc.2013.0006) brings together domestic and international, traditional and open university, MOOC providers and end-user experts to discuss whether MOOCs will “democratize” education. Participants in the Roundtable include Andrew Ng, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Coursera; Jack Wilson, President Emeritus, University of Massachusetts; Peter Sloep, Professor at the Open University of the Netherlands; and Nish Sonwalkar, Editor-in-Chief of MOOCs Forum and Director of Research for the United States Distant Learning Association.  The preview issue also includes the original research article “Self-Driven Mastery in Massive Open Online Courses” (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/mooc.2013.0003) by C.B. Do, Z. Chen, R. Brandman, and D. Koller, as well as a Perspective titled “Crowdsourcing to Assess MOOCs: A Position Paper” (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/mooc.2013.0004), by R.J. Clougherty Jr. and V. Popova.

“MOOCs are now facing many challenges. MOOCs Forum brings the best minds together and debates the issues for a long-term solution,” says Nishikant Sonwalkar, ScD, Editor-in-Chief of MOOCs Forum. “We know MOOCs are here to stay and the Forum provides a voice for key stakeholders in defining the future of MOOCs.”