MOOCs, SPOCs and next generation Open Access Learning

EdX has launched two Spark Augmented Reality courses from Meta, developed as part of the online learning platform's partnership with Meta Immersive Learning. The goal: to "build a learning ecosystem for the metaverse and give professionals broader access to the tools and education needed to build a career in augmented reality."

When Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were first introduced about a decade ago, many higher education professionals viewed this new arrival as

In 2015 I converted my introductory astronomy course ASTR1001 into a set of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and released them for free to everyone in the world. They have been running ever since to rave reviews and have been taken by 400,000 plus students: more than the ANU has graduated in its entire history.

But the real surprise was when we offered a version of these MOOCs to our on-campus students. I hadn’t imagined that any on-campus student would want to take a purely online course. But, in fact, our enrolment increased eightfold, and the SELT evaluations were spectacular. Why? Partly because these online courses are self-paced and asynchronous i.e. students can watch the videos and do the homework to their own schedule. This is valuable to students who need to support themselves by working. It also means that we can offer these courses multiple times per year – including the winter/summer semesters; popular sessions for students who need to replace a failed unit or catch up on underloading. 

The online learning platform absorbs the nonprofit started by Harvard and MIT to expand its reach. Philosophical concerns linger, but edX partners will benefit from new investment.

A decade ago, large-scale online courses known as MOOCs were all the rage, touted as a possible alternative to traditional college and celebrated i

In this fifth post for the Mini-series “Open for Good: Five Years of Open Education Resources at the University of Edinburgh” Lizzy Garner-Foy, Instructional Designer in the Educational Design and …

By Shravan Goli, Chief Product Officer, Coursera  Today, the Live2Coursera app for Zoom is available for free download in the Zoom App Marketplace.

Online learning provider company to buy assets of nonprofit MOOC pioneer to create a new entity reaching 50 million learners.

I describe the MOOC experience back when MOOCs were at their peak popularity.

Many students, especially adult students, have started earning a degree but never completed. Merging a stackable into degree programs may be the answer to getting these students the credentials they need to get back into the workforce. In this interview, Adam Fein discusses the University of North Texas’ decision to offer MOOC-based bachelor degrees, how […]

The tech giant Meta, widely known under its previous name Facebook, seems to be eyeing a way to allow users to offer video classes. Since at least las

Universities will also need to carefully consider the relative merits of housing courses on, and offering them via a MOOC platform as opposed to doing this themselves. Whilst it’s easy to make a fairly unsophisticated argument that going it alone means not incurring any 3rd party costs, HEIs need to conduct a cost benefit analysis in reference to their strategy to come to sound decisions.

It’s also worth noting that this doesn’t need to be an either/or decision, in fact a horses for courses approach could be effective, especially where institutions are confident in reaching and recruiting from the target audience themselves and where they have a strong online learning proposition already.

In essence what characterises all of this advice is deliberate, strategic, well-informed and  thought-through decision making in relation to MOOC platform partnerships. Some universities have not always been very rigorous in this respect. 

Nevertheless, as we enter a new era for online education, one in which there seems to be more universities developing partnerships to offer an online portfolio of courses, it will be interesting to observe whether MOOC platform partnerships will play a role in that and what this ultimately begins to look like. 

In 2021, two of the biggest MOOC providers had an “exit” event. Coursera went public, while edX was acquired by the public company 2U for $800 million and lost its non-profit status.

Ten years ago, more than 300,000 learners were taking the three free Stanford courses that kicked off the modern MOOC movement. I was one of those learners and launched Class Central as a side-project to keep track of these MOOCs.

Now, a decade later, MOOCs have reached 220 million learners, excluding China where we don’t have as reliable data, . In 2021, providers launched over 3,100 courses and 500 microcredentials.

In March, Coursera went public on the NYSE, raising $519 million. Since then, its stock price has been steadily falling even though revenue has been increasing. The company is expected to bring in more than $400 million in revenue in 2021. But it has yet to turn a profit, and it is on track to lose well over $100 million.

Large-scale online courses called MOOCs can get millions of registered users over time. But one online learning pioneer, Stephen Downes, says tha

Ten years ago when two Stanford professors started Coursera, many of the big-name colleges the company partnered with offered few online courses. An

Tecmilenio once again takes the lead in educational innovation by launching the Center for the Development of Competencies (CDC).

Well it's taken me over 3 and a half years, but I've finally completed another mooc. I use the term completed loosely, because while I consumed all the content, I didn't submit any of the assignments. In other words, I completed the course as far as my personal learning needs are concerned, while still feeding…

Richard Terry Over the last few years, public scrutiny and concern over the social impact of digital platforms has increased, even leading some to describe the current era as one of ‘surveillance capitalism’. As policymakers propose new regulations to curtail the powers of ‘Big Tech’, it has become clear that ever finer-grained detail of our public and private…