iMooX
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What iMooX is
iMooX calls itself "THE Austrian educational platform for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)", and its home page heading presents it as the Austrian MOOC platform. It is a product for learners first: a catalog of free, openly licensed online courses on a wide range of topics, open to anyone, with the tagline "Free online courses for everyone. We learn online, anytime, anywhere." It is also a place where teachers and institutions publish courses and reuse other people's.
The platform is publicly funded. The home page says it is made possible by funding from the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF), implemented by Graz University of Technology in cooperation with the University of Vienna and numerous partners, and the footer notes that the site is hosted by Graz University of Technology.
Its stated goal is "to make university-level educational content accessible to a broad section of the population and to give as many people as possible the opportunity to further their education." The footer line sums the offer up as "Free university-level online courses".
Free, and staying free
Cost is the simplest part of the story. The home page says "There are no hidden costs" and adds that "all courses on iMooX are and will remain free of charge and accessible to everyone." All courses are "available free of charge, anytime, anywhere," and signing up for an account costs nothing. There are no plans to compare and no paid upgrade to weigh.
Open licenses for teachers
What sets iMooX apart from many free course sites is its licensing. The platform describes its courses as "freely accessible and openly licensed", and says that "Thanks to Creative Commons licences, the learning content on iMooX is not only accessible free of charge, but can also be freely reused and repurposed by teachers and trainers." In practice, the site adds, "all courses can be reused in your lessons, lectures or other educational settings."
That makes iMooX useful to two audiences at once. A learner takes a course for its own sake. A school teacher, university lecturer or corporate trainer can take the same course's videos and materials into their own teaching, within the terms of the Creative Commons license attached to it.
How a course works
The home page sets out four steps under the heading "Ready to learn something new?":
- Sign up. Log in with eduID through your educational institution, or create a new free account.
- Select course. Find courses that match your interests.
- Complete course. "Learn new things through educational videos and exercises, and test your knowledge with self-assessment questions."
- Receive certificate. Get a certificate when you complete the course, and "show others what you have learned with digital badges."
Courses are built from educational videos, exercises and self-assessment questions, and are available anytime and anywhere. The site has separate pages explaining MOOCs and certificates, linked from the steps, and a questions and answers section in its Info & support menu.
The catalog
The catalog can be browsed as a list of all courses or as series. Series group thematically related courses, so a learner interested in one subject can follow a set rather than a single course. The home page also highlights the latest courses.
The range is wide. In the site's words, "you will find courses in various disciplines, ranging from natural sciences to humanities and medicine." Languages are a theme too: "On iMooX, you will find many courses in different languages. The website itself is also translated into several languages." The language menu offers German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Hungarian, Estonian, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Catalan, Greek, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, Hebrew, Arabic and Indonesian. The FAQ has more on languages.
Who makes the courses
Courses come from iMooX's partners, listed on the site under "Courses offered by (among others)". The list includes Austrian universities, among them the University of Vienna, Graz University of Technology, TU Wien, the University of Graz, the University of Innsbruck, the University of Klagenfurt, Johannes Kepler University Linz, the Medical University of Graz and the University for Continuing Education Krems. Universities of applied sciences are represented by the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Vienna, FHWien der WKW, IMC Krems and MCI, The Entrepreneurial School. Teacher education comes from the University College of Teacher Education Styria and the Private University of Education, Diocese of Linz. The remaining partners are the Democracy Centre Vienna, CONEDU, LawBusters and microcredentials.at.
For a learner, that partner list says a lot about subject and standard, because the courses come from institutions that also teach on campus.
For teachers, creators and institutions
iMooX actively invites people to build on it. The home page asks, "Would you like to create your own course or use iMooX in your own teaching?" and points to information for creators and partners. Its Info & support menu has sections for teachers, creators and partners and for fellowships, and the partners section asks, "Would your institution like to become a partner of iMooX?" A university, college or education organization that wants to publish free MOOCs without running its own platform has a clear route in, and an individual teacher can use existing courses in class.
Staying in touch and getting help
Support starts with the questions and answers section and an About iMooX page, with a contact page for anything else. A newsletter promises that "you will not miss any updates about our current and future courses on iMooX.at." iMooX is on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, and the footer links a press page, a legal notice, an accessibility statement, a data protection declaration and user policies.
Who it suits
iMooX suits anyone who wants university-level courses for free and without a catch, from curious adults to professionals updating their knowledge, and it particularly suits German speakers, since German is the site's default language. The certificate and digital badges give a learner something to show for a finished course.
It suits teachers and trainers especially well. Creative Commons licensing means a course can become material for a lesson or a lecture, and institutions can publish their own MOOCs through the partner and fellowship routes. Learners who need a degree or formal credits should treat an iMooX certificate as proof of a completed course rather than a qualification.