By Anne Halliwell

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New free courses are becoming available around the country that have no maximum enrollment and are conducted entirely online.

UK will launch its first massive open online course on January 27, 2014.

Courses of this kind are free, non-credit courses that outline the basics of a subject through online videos and instructions.

UK is offering a 10-week advanced chemistry course that is designed to introduce college-level chemistry to high school students.

“I think they’re a great companion for the university’s material,” said Vince Kellen, chief information officer for UK’s information technology department.

Although UK does not offer credit for the free course, Kellen feels that many current UK students could benefit from the online material.

“I think that the nice thing … is that students at the university who are also about to take the class can use it to go over (difficult concepts),” Kellen said.

Faculty and instructional designers work together to locate vital course material and then translate it to the web, said Patsy Carruthers, director of the academic technology group.

“A lot of thought goes into how students will access the material … They call them massive open online courses … we want to present it in as clean and easy a format as possible,” Carruthers said.

The advanced chemistry MOOC is only the first of several proposed courses, she said.

UK’s introductory psychology MOOC will become available in the spring, Carruthers said.

Carruthers said a major factor in deciding which courses to translate into MOOC form was the ability of the faculty of each department or college to work on such an intensive project.

“It might not be that the staff (of one department) is ready to take (this) step,” Carruthers said. “We found some people who were willing to take a jump into this new way of reaching out.”

Difficulty of certain classes was also taken into account, Carruthers said.

The advanced chemistry MOOC will include lecture, practice problem demonstration and experiment videos, as well as text, Carruthers said.

“Right now we’re very focused on getting students ready and prepared (for college work),” Kellen said.

Carruthers hopes that the introduction of MOOCs as supplements to coursework could cause some increase in test scores.

“I think that we’ll see small gains over time — not something huge or all at the beginning,” Carruthers said. “Those students that are motivated to become prepared to learn more and those students who need help who are already in those courses … that’s where we’ll see our first gains.”

Kellen agrees MOOCs are a good alternative to large lectures, but also believes  most students will still require a traditional classroom setting in order to reap the full benefits of experienced staff and understand complex ideas.

“Small classes, lectures and labs … that would be difficult (to convert),” Kellen said.

Kellen also pointed out the differences in classes and departments which may contribute to differing attitudes toward using MOOCs to convey information in the future.

“The faculty in these departments and colleges have to make the last determination of how to teach these classes,” Kellen said. “Based on that, some of them might be more MOOC-oriented and some might look into other ways to incorporate technology.”

For more information on  this course and more, go to coursera.org/course/advancedchemistry.