Moons: a MOOC and open education resource with games and a microscope

We have created a Massive Open On-line Course (MOOC) based on a theme of moons of the solar system. Unlike many current MOOCs our approach is not based on videos of an individual lecturer and on-line handouts. Instead, we have opted for an interactive and media-rich model that mixes short videos, animations, HTML5 activities, games, and conventional text and images. The Moons MOOC is delivered in the new FutureLearn MOOC platform. The content is divided into short steps, accessible on mobile devices, and is hopefully attractive to unconventional and non-academic audiences. Crucially, following the first presentation in early 2014, we intend to offer all the content as an Open Educational Resource allowing the content to be used and re-used in full or in part for teaching purposes for years to come. Thanks to a collaboration with the Lunar and Planetary Institute, we had a roving camera crew at the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science meeting in 2013, and they recorded a series of interviews with researchers covering current science of moons. These interviews have been edited into short videos and appear throughout the MOOC.