Integrating MOOC with Open Source Moodle: The New Direction of Learning at Sultan Qaboos University

Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) is considered as a strong competitor for the next availability of educational tools and entered the field of higher education around the world. 2012 was a year of speedy era for education with the beginning of MOOCs to be used and learned for free in the world. It is commonly accepted and preferred because it has several advantages like large scale, no restrictions for the time and place, open free in which it can deliver a new knowledge acquisition approach for learners. In line with this, through investigating the utilization of MOOCs in some continents such as Asia, Europe and USA, it appeared that MOOC had been integrated local curricula through Learning Management System (LMS). The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of adapting MOOC to support the currently learning and teaching process in Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) that combines both online and face-to-face in order to promote and improve the way SQU delivers courses' content and host online learning activities by using Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (Moodle). Also, to highlight possible opportunities when integrating MOOCs in SQU E-learning environment that will allow it to explore new learning models and innovative practices in teaching and learning.