You may have heard of MOOCs—Massive Open Online Courses(大规模在线开放课程).
These courses are given by famous universities around the world. They were usually for university students or adults, but that's changing. MOOCs are also for younger learners now.
Mr Wei is a teacher from a middle school in Shanghai. He opened several computer courses last year. He recorded his courses and put them on the Internet as a part of the "MOOCs Go to Middle School" project in China. Middle school students can now choose from those online courses and study by themselves outside school.
Some teachers are worried. Although they can learn a lot from MOOCs, middle school students may not have enough time to take MOOCs outside the class.
In November, 2012, a university in the USA opened the world's first free MOOC for middle school students—a three－week class on biology. About 200 middle school students took the class and some were from as far away as China. You see, time and distance are not problems for eager learners.
