The former seems to be more of a public service effort to supplement standard education, while the latter are really just migrating standard fare online. Only in a minority of cases, staff have been appointed exclusively to this role. The MOOC ventures are working to build distinct new platforms for education, and to expand the scale of education by orders of magnitude. Though Udacity, Coursera and edX differ in important ways, for now I will focus on Coursera.


Citation. They have the potential to solve some of the big problems facing higher education, to include unsustainable costs, unmanageable student debt, college participation rates, unchanged retention and graduation rates, and fierce competition from other countries. The discussion surrounding Massive Open Online Classes (MOOCs) continues to build momentum. Five courses have been recognized by the American Council on Education as suitable for college credit, subject to proctored exams with a $60-$90 testing fee.

Despite being in their infancy, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have the potential to become a global higher education game changer. Taking a MOOC was a perfect fit for me. In 2013, more than 10 million students enrolled in at least one MOOC. Though their However, I would argue that Coursera is unlikely to be able to fully displace top-tier universities. College and University, 88(2), 24-30. According to Michael Raynor (Specifically, Disruptive innovations are defined as products or services that appeal to markets or market segments that are economically unattractive to incumbents, typically because the solution is “worse” from the perspective of mainstream, profitable markets or market segments.”The figures below illustrate how Coursera’s approach conforms to this definition.Mainstream, incumbent, universities appear to have a By leveraging scale, creating virtual classrooms, and by targeting people more interested in skills development than in formal degrees, Coursera has managed to position itself well outside of what is possible for conventional universities:Thus, Coursera has created (if not actually, then potentially) a much lower cost structure that enables them to target a less-picky segment of students that are presently, because of cost and poor access, non-consumers of college programs. Some international students may think it better to stay at home and take a MOOC than spend thousands of dollars to attend an international school. Why? It was back in 2012, when Coursera was founded, and MOOCs weren’t well-known, especially in Croatia.

All Rights Reserved | Website by They may consider a certificate of completion from a world-class institution as a better indicator of the skills needed for success than a degree from a second- or third-tier college or university.

Employers may come to recognize MOOCs as an alternative credential to the traditional three- or four-year degree. The author concludes that MOOCs will not replace colleges and universities.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is exploring the potential of offering MOOCs to low-income students. As of Coursera’s overall approach seems to be positioning it as a ‘disruptor’ to conventional higher education. If Coursera does not do what I suggest here, then edX might.In a scenario where there is pressure on tuition costs, forcing tuition fees Copyright © 2020 ScienceSmith. Dennis, M. (2012).
The Impact of MOOCs on Higher Education [This article was originally posted on LinkedIn Noember 15, 2014] . For more details see Note: documents in Portable Document Format (PDF) require Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher to view,

My normal focus here is on innovation, but as I’ve a daughter looking at college and as I just had a good reason to take a look at the state of education and at massive online open classes (MOOCs) in particular, I’d like to share some thoughts here. In this article, the author discusses the impact of MOOCs on the following: (1) Accreditation agencies; (2) Book publishers; (3) Federal and state subsidies; (4) Rating agencies; (5) Advanced Placement exams; (6) Enrollment and retention managers; (7) Branch campuses; (8) Career counselors; (9) Chief financial officers; (10) Facilities managers; (11) IT managers; (12) Students; (13) Faculty; (14) Venture capitalists; and (15) For-profit schools.