Dig Deeper: MOOCs, edX and The Ethics of Eating

Want to be able to explore new subject areas? Perhaps you want to find out what a course might be at University? Want to study in your own time, at your own pace and wherever you want? If the answers to these questions are “yes” then MOOCs might be for you!

A MOOC stands for Massive, Open, Online Course. They are massive in that a huge number of people can sign up to them; open in that anyone can join in and they are free (to an extent); and online so available pretty much any time anywhere. This video from @davecormier explains it very well!

There are a huge number of providers of MOOCs online (find them here https://www.mooc-list.com/) but three sites dominate the market; Coursera, Udacity and edX. I have no idea what Udacity is like because it is all programming and tech subjects. Coursera is a very good platform and there are a good number of courses that readers of this blog might be interested such as “Introduction to Philosophy”, “Logic, Language and information” and “Moral Foundations and Politics” - the problem is that some of these courses (e.g. that last two I mentioned) cost money to complete - £30 or so - however some can be done for free.

The platform that I have used the most is edX and I love it! All the courses are free to audit - but if you wanted a certificate to show an employer or university you can pay for this. In total they offer 434 courses on a huge range of subjects. When it comes to Philosophy and Ethics there are some great ones to take up. The great thing is you follow them assiduously (watch every video and read every text) or you can dip in and out, selecting what you want to access.

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Here are a few courses you might be interested in:


Introduction to Philosophy: God, Knowledge and Consciousness - a great introduction to lots of the topics we study at A-level (Ontological, Cosmological etc) but at degree level. Lots of primary texts and videos to explain it.

Justice (with Michael J. Sandel) - This course explores a huge range of ethical approaches to justice including utilitarianism, Libertarianism, Kantianism and Virtue Theory.




Jesus in Scripture and Tradition - This course has not started yet but promises to explore the figure of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, Gospels and Early-Church writers. This should be great course for anyone thinking about a degree in Theology.

The Divine Comedy: Dante's Journey to Freedom, Part 1 - A very good course for those interested in English Literature and Philosophy; exploring concepts such as human freedom, responsibility and identity through the writings of Dante’s Divine Comedy.






The Science of Everyday Thinking - A course which challenges us to “Think better, argue better and choose better”. It is a great course with really innovative ideas and some brilliant interviews with scholars from all over the world.

The Ethics of Eating - Finally this really exciting new course which starts soon  hopes to explore the ethics of eating and purchasing food. The course promises it will consult with a diverse group of philosophers, food scientists, activists, industry specialists and farmers. This course deals with an area of ethics that is not really very well covered at A-level and so this could be great to show that you are interested in Ethics and its application to the real world. I will definitely be doing this course!

So I hope this has whet your appetite for MOOCs and that you will now go on to explore them and benefit from their learning opportunities.