Call for papers: IEEE Learning with MOOCs Conference

Leading conference in online learning hosted at MIT this October

Update: Deadline extended until April 18, 2023.

This October, the Learning with MOOCs Conference (LWMOOCS) will return to the MIT campus. This conference started in 2014 as an international forum for academic and industry professionals to discuss the latest advances in massive open online courses (MOOCs), now under IEEE. Now through April 3, 2023, LWMOOCS is accepting papers from MOOC researchers and practitioners regarding programs and technologies related to open online courses, as well as practical considerations for creating and offering MOOCs to diverse worldwide audiences. Papers presented at the conference will be published in IEEE Xplore subject to meeting IEEE Xplore’s scope and quality requirements.

Submit your paper to LMOOCS.

MIT Digital Learning Lab Scientists Jessica Sandland and Mary Ellen Wiltrout are serving as the LWMOOCS 2023 General Chairs. They are joining the LWMOOCS Steering Committee alongside original members such as 2U/edX Chief Open Education Officer Anant Agarwal and others. The Digital Learning Lab, which is part of Open Learning, comprises subject matter experts who are also well-versed in the latest teaching and learning theories and technologies. They work with faculty and instructors in academic departments across MIT to develop online courses and digital strategies for on-campus teaching.

“One goal [of the LWMOOCS Steering Committee] is to provide a space for academic and industry folks to come together,” says Wiltrout. “We want to highlight case studies, research, and frameworks from those creating, running, or studying MOOCs for the community to learn from each other, driving the field to evolve. We are interested in getting more of the learner perspective as well. Big data can inform what we know about learners in MOOCs, but individual stories are what motivates us to do this work.”

IEEE believes that openness, international collaboration, and the free flow of talent and ideas are essential for the fundamental human activities of science, technology, and engineering. MOOCs aim to lower the financial barriers to participation in college-level courses, making education more accessible to learners across the globe. MIT was a pioneer in the open educational resource space with MIT OpenCourseWare in 2001 and has continued driving online learning innovations since launching MITx in 2011 and beyond. Since MIT has been a leader in advancing MOOC technologies and teaching and learning innovations, the IEEE Education Society is excited that the conference will be returning to Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America for LWMOOCS 2023.

Sandland says, “Ten years ago, we were talking about MOOC in the context of individual, stand-alone online courses, but now there’s more interest in exploring a variety of different educational spaces that are trying to use online modalities to make education more accessible, more affordable.”

LWMOOCS brings together MOOC developers, researchers, and technologists from across the globe to share their localized approaches with a broader audience. As such, LWMOOCS accepts submissions from a variety of MOOC disciplines and topics. Submissions range from technical research papers to hands-on and implementation focused contributions. Sandland says, “We’re trying to broaden topics from that question of, ‘What are you doing in your MOOC?’ to ‘What are you doing to try to capitalize on these resources and achieve these broader goals of MOOCS?’”

All submissions are double-blind peer-reviewed and all papers presented during the conference will be published in the 2023 LWMOOCS conference proceedings. To submit your paper to LWMOOCS, click here.