The paper discusses the educational possibilities of Massive Open Online Courses with an emphasis on the evolutionary cycle and the importance of ICT, which has played a critical role in their respective realization. The development process of the considered phenomenon indicates an increasing tendency (although not quite obvious) that could change the way we perceive education, especially informal and non-formal, while formal education is still predominant. It points to the significant changes that occur in the educational environment, including all elements of educational process (content, method and teacher's competence) and finally elaborating the concept of an “online“ classroom in full detail. Educational environment in which knowlegde is acquired is tightly connected with the way of his transferring. In this case, constructivism represents the fundamental theory from which didactical principles have evolved. The idea of Massive Open Online Courses is known and seriously considered in a small number of developed countries with the USA being far ahead, which is caused by a numerous geopolitical factors. Due to educational inequality around the world there is need for better use of all the opportunities that this kind of education offers.
Massive open online courses, university courses, online education, ICT in education, new media.
