Challenges in teaching modeling and simulation online

With the emergence of free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), online education has been in the headlines in recent years. Many universities are offering online courses, some free and some for pay tied to a degree program. However, the lack of sufficient quality in existing online courses is undeniable. In particular, teaching Modeling and Simulation (M&S) as an undergraduate or graduate-level online course poses significant technical challenges for instructors. This paper presents an online learning quality model and discusses such challenges by giving the first author´s own free online M&S courseware as an example. The quality model presented provides guidelines for the development of any online course.