The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a popular phenomenon in the online learning world. Today many institutions offer MOOCs; the two main MOOC portals (Coursera, Edx) have about 135 partners while many more institutions are exploring the possibilities of such effort. This phenomenon has not only created a new trend in online education, it also has been adopted by a number of institutions around the world, allowing spaces for research in pedagogical, technological and organizational aspects.

This workshop will focus on the exchange of popular trends and research results, as well as the presentation of practical experiences gained while developing of MOOCs; we invite researchers, technologists, and course designers from universities and industry to share their approaches and perspectives on key topics, including analytics and data mining, assessment, credentialing, pedagogy aspects, gamification, cloud services and resources, universal design, accessibility and technological frameworks/architectures. Best papers will be selected for submission of Journal Universal Computer Science (JUCS) Special Issue on Massive Open Online Courses: Combining Methodologies and Architectures for Success Learning. Additional to presentations, we will do small workshops and group discussions about upcoming initiatives and insights from key experts in the field.

Topics of Interest 
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• Technological models and frameworks to support MOOCs
• Assessment (different types of assessment approaches and technologies)
• MOOCs scalability and quality assurance models at the pedagogical and technical level, supported by innovative technology
• Cloud Services and Resources (the use of innovative Web 2.0 applications and resources that can be orchestrated through interoperable API’s to the MOOC learning environment)
• Learning Analytics
• Gamification and Social Learning Artefacts
• Universal Design and Accessibility issues in MOOCs contents and platforms
• Adaptive policies for managing different participant profiles
• Pedagogical issues, tutoring roles and human interaction in MOOCs development
• Security and accreditation models.
• Experiences and best practices in implementing MOOCs
• Instructional Design for MOOCs

Submission and Publications 
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We invite contributions in the following categories:
Research papers (up to 6 pages)
Descriptions of interactive demos (up to 2 pages).
These descriptions should be focused on real life experiences and provide sharable hands-on experience during the workshop.
Discussion papers (up to 2 pages).
These papers should pinpoint relevant current issues in the development of MOOCs.

Important Dates 
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Submissions deadline:
Research papers extended abstract (2 pages) – March 2, 2014.
Descriptions of interactive demos (up to 2 pages) – March 2, 2014.
Discussion papers (up to 2 pages) – March 2, 2014.
Notification of Acceptance – March 22, 2014.
Camera-ready submissions (including Research paper 6 pages) – April 14, 2014.
Workshop dates: May 15-16, 2014
Papers only prepared according to the IEEE guidelines for authors here http://www.computer.org/portal/web/cscps/formatting

Papers must be submitted via EasyChair:
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=moocir14

Conference Language
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English is the official conference language. Online participation (presentation of papers only) is also possible.

Organizers 
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Al Essa,Vice President, Analytics, Research and Development, McGraw-Hill Education, USA.
Francisco J. García-Peñalvo, Director GRIAL, University of Salamanca, SPAIN.
Carlos Delgado Kloos, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, SPAIN
Rocael Hernandez-Rizzardini, Director GES, Galileo University, GUATEMALA.

The workshop is organized by Galileo University and members of ESVI-AL project, part of the ALFA III programme for the European Union.

For more information please visit: http://ges.galileo.edu/mooc-workshop