About Our MOOC

In November 2013 the University of Southampton began its first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), focusing on Web Science – a taster of how the web is changing the world and how the world is changing the web.

It was the first of many courses that have been made available in partnership with platform provider FutureLearn for people to study online, for free, wherever they are based in the world. The MOOC can act as a taster for people considering more formal educational programmes in this area, or to anyone with a particular interest in the web and its relationship with business and society.

No prior subject knowledge is required to participate in the Web Science MOOC, just enthusiasm and willingness to engage in building a global online community of interest around the topic. The original MOOC lasted for 6 weeks, and each week required 2-6 hours of study through a combination of video, articles, activities and interactions via social media.

In November 2015 we decided to updated the MOOC content and split the course into a series of more flexible 2 week “mini-MOOCs”. So we now have:

  • Introduction to Web Science
  • The Power of Social Media
  • Linked Data and the Semantic Web

More flavours to follow – watch this space!

 

You can find out more about our Web Science undergraduate and postgraduate programmes here