Michael G. Moore, Greg Kearsley
Wadsworth, 2015
Google Books
Amazon
I'm not asking to buy this book. You can find the copy of some parts here (19 MB - needs a password to be open, you will receive one by mail) and you are allowed to use it for your personal study. You are not allowed to distributed these texts elsewhere, in any form, even if altogether  they amount to 12% of the original work (15% is the maximum allowed amount to be copied for personal use only).

This is my view about distance education in the context of Italian University:

La tortuosa via della didattica online nell'università (PDF 1.2 M)
A.R. Formiconi (2016), Studi sulla Formazione, 105-132.

How MOOCs came to the world:

• The first (embryonic) ante litteram MOOC by David Wiley: Introduction to Open Education, Fall 2007.
  
• The first true ante litteram MOOC: Connectivism and Connective Konwledge 2008 - CCK08. Le tracce in Internet googlando 
• Internet CCK08 footprints (obtained just googling CCK08).
  
• CCK08 MOOC description by Stephen Downes: New Technology Supporting Informal Learning.
• George Siemens (2005), Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, International Journal of Instructrional Technology and Distance Learning, 1-8.
• A. Calvani (2008), Connectivism: new paradigm or fascinating pot-pourri?, Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 4(1), pp. 247-252

Infographic showing completion rates of many MOOCs around the world.
http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html