;
Lorem Ipsum Dolor Spring 2016
2
gradually unfolding. One project dedicated to this process is the Unified
English Braille Online Training (UEBOT) developed at Northern Illinois
University. The course has been built on the shoulders of existing experience,
but also aims to explore the effective use of a Massively Open Online Course
(MOOC) in the field of vision.
MOOCs as a Unique Solution
MOOCs have been gaining in market and momentum over the last
decade, and 2013 was popularly declared "the year of the MOOC" (Papano,
2012, p. ED26). Early efforts have spawned organizations like EdX and
Coursera where students can complete introductory level courses offered by
participating universities by hosting universities in an online format. The field
of professional development in visual impairments has engaged
correspondence courses and online coursework, discovering where
deployment of these educational technologies is appropriate. The advent of
MOOCs at some point would also demand implementation and review.
The strength of MOOCs lies in their ability to handle a large population of
students requiring introductory content (Head, 2014). In order to maintain the
43
