The acronym for massive open online courses, MOOC, was added to the Oxford online dictionary Aug. 28, defined as “a course of study made available over the Internet without charge to a very large number of people.”
The phrase was coined when a group of Canadian scholars developed a course in 2008 at the University of Manitoba called Connectivism and Connective Knowledge, delivered to over 2,000 online students, according to Times Higher Education.
Angus Stevenson of Oxford Dictionaries Online said in the announcement that there are approximately 1,000 new entries each year.
“New words, senses, and phrases are added to Oxford Dictionaries Online when we have gathered enough independent evidence from a range of sources to be confident that they have widespread currency in English,” Stevenson said. “Publishing online allows us to make the results of our research available more quickly than ever before.”
Other words added in August included “derp,” “speech regarded as meaningless or stupid, or to comment on a foolish or stupid action,” “FOMO,” the “fear of missing out: anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website,” and “twerk,” a “dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance.”
In June 2013, Carleton University president Roseann Runte wrote in a Globe and Mail opinion piece that MOOCs enrich the learning experience.
