Types of MOOCs: C-Moocs & X-Moocs
Many people think of Sebastian Thrun's 2011 MOOC on artificial intelligence as the first MOOC, but in reality the first MOOC was likely offered in 2008 at the University of Manitoba. An entry from Wikipedia describes the early days of MOOCs:
"Early MOOCs A network diagram showing the distributive nature of Stephen Downes' and George Siemens' CCK08 course, one of the first MOOCs and the course that inspired the term MOOC to become adopted.[17] The first MOOCs emerged from the open educational resources (OER) movement. The term MOOC was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island and Senior Research Fellow Bryan Alexander of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education in response to a course called Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (also known as CCK08). CCK08, which was led by George Siemens of Athabasca University and Stephen Downes of the National Research Council, consisted of 25 tuition-paying students in Extended Education at the University of Manitoba, as well as over 2200 other students from the general public who took the course online free of charge. All course content was available through RSS feeds, and online students could participate through a variety of collaborative and social tools, including blog posts, threaded discussions in Moodle, and Second Life online meetings.[18][17][19]
Soon other independent MOOCs emerged. Jim Groom from The University of Mary Washington and Michael Branson Smith of York College, City University of New York, adopted this course structure and hosted their own MOOCs through several universities. Early MOOCs departed from formats that relied on posted resources, learning management systems, and structures that mix the learning management system with more open web resources.[20] MOOCs from private, non-profit institutions[21] emphasized prominent faculty members and expanded open offerings to existing subscribers (e.g., podcast listeners) into free and open online courses"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course
These early MOOCs were less about presenting content and more about connecting learners. The term C-MOOC refers to a MOOC designed to emphasize connecting learners. C-MOOC stands for Connectivist MOOC. C-MOOCs are built upon the idea and platform originally envisioned by George Siemens. X-MOOCs have their background in the rise of open course ware. In the image below you can see a timeline of MOOC development.
"Early MOOCs A network diagram showing the distributive nature of Stephen Downes' and George Siemens' CCK08 course, one of the first MOOCs and the course that inspired the term MOOC to become adopted.[17] The first MOOCs emerged from the open educational resources (OER) movement. The term MOOC was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island and Senior Research Fellow Bryan Alexander of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education in response to a course called Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (also known as CCK08). CCK08, which was led by George Siemens of Athabasca University and Stephen Downes of the National Research Council, consisted of 25 tuition-paying students in Extended Education at the University of Manitoba, as well as over 2200 other students from the general public who took the course online free of charge. All course content was available through RSS feeds, and online students could participate through a variety of collaborative and social tools, including blog posts, threaded discussions in Moodle, and Second Life online meetings.[18][17][19]
Soon other independent MOOCs emerged. Jim Groom from The University of Mary Washington and Michael Branson Smith of York College, City University of New York, adopted this course structure and hosted their own MOOCs through several universities. Early MOOCs departed from formats that relied on posted resources, learning management systems, and structures that mix the learning management system with more open web resources.[20] MOOCs from private, non-profit institutions[21] emphasized prominent faculty members and expanded open offerings to existing subscribers (e.g., podcast listeners) into free and open online courses"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course
These early MOOCs were less about presenting content and more about connecting learners. The term C-MOOC refers to a MOOC designed to emphasize connecting learners. C-MOOC stands for Connectivist MOOC. C-MOOCs are built upon the idea and platform originally envisioned by George Siemens. X-MOOCs have their background in the rise of open course ware. In the image below you can see a timeline of MOOC development.
X-MOOCs appear to have developed out of the idea of OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources.Teh "X" in X-MOOC doesn't stand for anything specifically. But X-MOOCs are typically offered by a university in partnership with a for profit organization. While edX and MITx have an "X" in their title, they are not the only organizations offering X-MOOCs. I sometimes think of the "X" standing for "Expert" because most of these MOOCs are taught by relying on recorded experts at well known universities, but that designation is mine and not widely recognized. MOOCs News and Reviews provides a good overview of what the difference is, and what the difference might mean for a student. While MOOCs are enjoying a lot of attention, there are many issues to be worked through as well. The diagram below provides some detail on those issues and challenges.