Vocational Open Online Course

A Vocational Open Online Course (VOOC; /vu:k/) is a targeted online course aimed at participation on the web. VOOC is, in part, an adaptation of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).

However, there are a number of core differences between The Two, the main one being that MOOCs are an academic course, typically delivered by a university to enable distance education, whereas a VOOC is a vocational bite-size course created to upskill the workforce and enhance career progression.

Other differences include, the topics that each of the online courses offer and the timeframes of completion, with MOOCs usually taking 1-3 months to complete and VOOCs no more than a couple of hours.

History

VOOC is a recent development with the term first being publicised in January 2014.

The first VOOC style course however was created a few years prior to this by Virtual College and NHS Diabetes. This was a direct response to a National Patient Safety Agency alert in 2010, highlighting a lack of sufficient training in the safe use of insulin. Up until May 2014, the number of learners who had completed this course exceeded 200,000.

Precursors

The timeline below shows an evolution of the MOOC term:

MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)

The first MOOC was created in 2008, however they only started gaining momentum in 2011 when several Stanford University professors decided to put their courses online.

cMOOC (Connectivist MOOC)

The term cMOOC was created by Stephen Downes in 2012. The term describes a MOOC where people learn through social networks e.g. blogs with a focus on knowledge creation instead of acquisition.

xMOOC

Again, created by Stephen Downes in 2012, the term describes the superstar professor-led MOOCs by Coursera, EdX and Udacity, which focus purely on knowledge acquisition.

BOOC (Big Open Online Course)

Founded by Google in March 2013, BOOC is simply a further variation of the term MOOC!

SPOC (Small Private Online Course)

SPOC was coined by EdX in April 2013.

DOCC (Distributed Open Collaborative Course)

Created in August 2013, DOCCs aim to move away from having a 'superstar professor' towards people learning together as a group.

SMOC (Synchronous Massive Online Course)

This term was coined at University of Texas in August 2013, and describes a course that features live, synchronous broadcasts to students.

VOOC® (Vocational Open Online Course)

The term VOOC was trademarked by Virtual College in January 2014.

Recent developments

Virtual College announced in April 2014 that they are creating a suite of 10 career VOOCs, designed to provide career seekers with a 'warts and all' insight into various sectors.

Ufi Charitable Trust has also announced that they have funded a Blending Learning VOOC. The VOOC will include, insights into the 'big ideas' behind technology's role in the vocational learning mix and addressing any skills gaps.