The common duration of a MOOC is from 6 to 12 weeks. A MOOC is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The majority of the content is delivered asynchronously (meaning students can access it in their own time and at their own pace). However, sometimes there can be optional synchronous events such as 'live' webinars (interactive sessions) which require participants to join in at specific dates/times.
A standard class becomes in a MOOC a set of videos of 5-10 minutes each.
The learning of students in a MOOC is usually assessed by multiple-choice questions.
An important component of MOOCs is assignments. Student have to upload assignment solutions into the MOOC platform. Assignments can be evaluated and graded:
Another component is the forum, where students post questions that other students can answer.
Usually, there are no pre-requisites for taking a MOOC, apart from having access to a computer with an internet connection. Most of the time, the educational or academic background of students isn't important.
Students usually don't need to buy any books for these courses, because all reading is either be provided within the MOOC content or is linked to open access texts.