The first ever MOOC, called ‘‘Connectivism’’ and Connective Knowledge [1], was produced in 2008, by Stephen Downes and George Siemens of the University of Manitoba. Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island reportedly coined the term MOOC in a 2008 blog post [2]. The ‘‘big three’’ course providers, Udacity [3], Coursera [4], and edX [5] emerged in 2012. Udacity and Coursera were out of Stanford, and were backed by venture capital; edX is a non-profit with a $60 million infusion from MIT and Harvard. FutureLearn [6], a private company wholly owned by The Open University in the United Kingdom, launched its first courses in September 2013. The mission of MOOC providers is to supply universal education for all, online, free, or at minimal cost. Professor-centric MOOCs deliver lectures and perhaps related material, maybe with an optional credential for course completion, but with little or no scope for interaction. Nowadays, ‘‘connectivist’’ MOOCs (‘‘cMOOCs’’) are considered to be more progressive: students complete peergraded assessments (as opposed to computer-graded ones), and connect with fellow learners and instructors in forums, or even on campus. Originally, MOOCs had a start date and an end date, and specific deadlines for assignments, and students did not know when or if the the course would start again. Recently, the trend has been toward self-paced courses, that is, courses that are always open, and can be completed at the student’s own pace. From the students’ point of view, MOOCs have the advantages of no (or low) cost, a broad range of topics, and global accessibility, with (usually) no need to travel. On the other hand, it is hard to track student progress, ‘‘statements of participation’’ may not be valued by employers (and have a potential to be non-authentic), and students do not get sufficient personal attention. In addition, some professors object to being unrewarded for having their lectures offered online, and some universities fear that MOOCs will lead to their demise. Not all universities will have the resource and infrastructure to offer courses. The cost of producing a MOOC is about $100,000; video production alone costs $15,000–$50,000. Course creators spend 100–300 h on preparation, and 8–10 h a week on maintenance. One big criticism has been poor completion rates: typically the dropout rate has been over 90 %. It is worth noting, however, that some students actually appreciate the opportunity to dip into and out of courses. The situation might be improving: FutureLearn claimed in 2014 that about 22 % of students complete a majority of its steps and assessments, partly because FutureLearn minimizes the ‘‘loneliness of distance learning’’. More than 35 million students signed up for at least one course in 2015. Coursera has 17 million students, edX claims 5 million, and FutureLearn has nearly 3 million, more than Udacity [7]. In terms of the number of courses, Coursera has the largest share (36 %), edX has 18 %, Canvas.net 7 %, FutureLearn 6 % and Udacity 3 %; 4200 courses are available from over 550 universities [8]. One of the big trends of 2015 was MOOC providers creating their own credentials, for example Udacity’s Nanodegrees, Coursera’s Specializations and edX’s Xseries [9]. Certificates are a main source of revenue for Coursera and Udacity [8]. The average cost of a Coursera certificate is $56; for edX it is $53. & Wendy A. Warr wendy@warr.com
Read full abstract
Apr 1, 2017
Tom Coughlin 
Open Access