Whoever is “teaching” your children is also discipling them.
Remember that.
MOOCs have the power to destroy the present educational establishment. Khan Academy, for example. Unless and until particular MOOCs become mandated. But if one is free to choose which to participate in, competition exists and excellence (i.e. the bane of the public schools) will eventually emerge.
There is also a problem because there are a variety of online educational sites run by government entities.
One, for instance, run by a county school district and another run by the state itself....I am speaking for Florida in this case.
hslda.org is a good site for home schooling.
Another, at least for Florida residents, is fpea.com.
A good online course resource is the curriculum known as Monarch, published by Alpha Omega Press.
Definition:
MOOC - The sound a cow makes upon inhaling a bug.
If I’m sitting beside my kid watching and listening to his online lectures - and guiding him on his assignment completion, feedback and homework assignments and projects- it’s “homeschooling”
The headline “beware”, and accompanying comments, I would restate simply as beware that many MOOCs may just be more government indoctrination. Agreed. Be careful.
Age is a factor, in my opinion. When a child is younger they are more susceptible to indoctrination. Letting your young child use any training materials, online or otherwise that have content you are not aware of is a bad idea.
However, at some point (age), hopefully you have trained your child in critical thinking, and good foundations, so they can recognize indoctrination when the see it and reject falsehoods. That said, some material is inappropriate for any human to watch at any age, as it is just immoral.
The “MOOCs”? Is this another Trivial Pursuit misprint?