xMOOC: Stephen Downes, co-founder of one of the first MOOCs, coined this term in 2012 to create a distinction in MOOCs in this category from what he termed ‘cMOOCs’. xMOOCs are based on traditional university courses. An advantage of xMOOCs is that they significantly broaden the number of students who can be exposed to university-level courses. Critics of xMOOCs, however, argue that xMOOCs are inferior to the university courses they mimic because they eliminate teacher-student interactions and involve limited student-student interactions. Platforms like edX, Coursera, and Udacity provide xMOOCs.