Some institutions are beginning to incorporate social media and live interaction to promote student engagement in online courses.

The Professional Certificate program is a series of courses offered by top universities and companies to help people enhance their skills in fields like virtual reality.

Harvard's introduction of HMX Fundamentals offers access to non-university students who want to increase their medical and health care knowledge.

The massive open online course provider adds Boston University, University of Pennsylvania, University of California San Diego and others to masters lineup.

Students in MOOC adaptive learning experiment scored nearly 20 percent better than students using more traditional learning approaches.

The massive open online course platform, founded by Harvard and MIT, is offering an accessible path to a master's degree.

Sharks will be the focus of a new Cornell University massive open online course during the Discovery Channel's week devoted to the feared fish.

USAID and online education company CourseTalk are slated to announce a .55 million effort to offer the courses in South Africa, Colombia and the Philippines.

Author Kevin Carey argues in his book that students from around the world will be able to enroll in virtual schools that are free and have an open admissions process.