A class with tens or even hundreds of thousands of students might sound like a teacher's bad
dream. But a big idea in higher education these days is the massive open online course, or MOOC.
____________31___________ Others charge for courses and provide credits. The idea is still
developing.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently started its first MOOC.
__________32_____________
So far, most massive open online courses are in computer science, technology, mechanics and
engineering. ___________33____________ Two computer scientists, Sebastian Thrun and
David Evans, are offering this course through udacity.com.
Mr. Evans is on leave from the University of Virginia, where he is an associate professor.
Mr. Thrun is a Stanford research professor and a Google Fellow best known for his work on a driverless car.
____________34___________ The students watch short videos. Then, says Mr. Evans, they take informal,
ungraded quizzes after the videos each week for six weeks.
DAVID EVANS: "Quizzes are part of the lecture to keep students engaged and keep them thinking, for
students to be able to check that they understood what we covered. ___________35____________"
They can repeatedly watch the videos and take the quizzes whenever they want. Students receive
Homework. They join online groups to exchange