MOOCs and Librarians

Jennifer Howard discusses how "For Libraries, MOOCs Bring Uncertainty and Opportunity ." Her article is based on an OCLC conference held in Pennsylvania on March 18, 2013. Howard encourages librarians to participate in a MOOC in order to authoritively discuss their possibilities and limitations. She also reports that:

Several panelists said that working on MOOCs can be a great way to heighten instructors’ awareness about open access and the licensing of course materials. Jennifer Dorner is the head of instruction and user services at the University of California at Berkeley. “This is a real opportunity [for librarians] to educate faculty about the need for owning the rights to their content and making it accessible to other people,” Ms. Dorner said in one session. “This is a really good place for us to educate them about open source and push them in that direction.”

-DD