For many years C-STEM teachers have been utilizing online courses and resources to enrich STEM learning in their classrooms. Many have adopted this format to maximize classroom time with students and have provided students the framework and platform to maximize their out of class time to remain on track with school work and to get ahead with course work. I have found as well as many of the teachers I work with, that online courses supports the integration of relevant material to connect classroom learning to the real world. A relatively new find for me are the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) list that are free through different websites. Colleges and universities share their classes with these websites, and that is how the information of the courses are shared. An example of a course that is provided through the MOOC list is a Calculus course offered by the University of Michigan that is offered at no charge through Coursera (one of the websites that offer this courses). The online course allows teachers to have their students establish accounts and follow the curriculum throughout the semester. This is a great opportunity for educators to become more creative in the classroom because of the extra time they can build into the instructional day to reinforce concepts, engage students in project based learning to support application of their knowledge and skills as well as assess student proficiency beyond paper tests and quizzes. I have also found that MOOC lists are great for parents and mentors who are working on improving their child/children skill-sets in literacy and STEM content areas.

In the UK, the Department of Education published a report in June on how they could implement this type of medium into their classrooms. The study suggests that in the future, MOOC’s will not replace classroom teachers; however, they will become a staple used in classrooms around the world.