Facilitated MOOC

I have participated in several MOOCs and have presented the benefits of free college courses offered by major universities to my learning colleagues. Unfortunately, our employees are often intimidated by the idea of participating in online courses. I realized that the way to overcome some of the fears of both the learners and the HR department is to create a facilitated MOOC. An example would be: a group within our accounting department having difficulties with accounting basics can participate together in an Accounting 101 MOOC. In addition, a facilitator will hold weekly meetings with this group and discuss what they learned, see if they are having any problems, issues with the technology or material and to talk about how they might apply information and assignments from the course to their job.

I have done some research and found that Antioch University, which happens to also be my alma mater, has worked with Coursera in the past to facilitate MOOCs and offer college credit to their students at a reduced rate. The instructional design is done by a well–known, accredited university, an Antioch professor meets with students to discuss materials and supply additional assignments and have conversations and offer help to students as they work through the MOOC coursework.

I have secured a meeting with the administrator of the program at Antioch to discuss their experience with this program and I hope to convince my department to begin a pilot program involving facilitating a MOOC.

Is there anyone else out there who has experience, interest or ideas about facilitating a MOOC? I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you think this will work? Would this work in your organization? Why or why not?