{"id":3328,"date":"2017-10-14T12:38:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T16:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/?p=3328"},"modified":"2019-06-11T14:19:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T18:19:22","slug":"moocs-are-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"MOOCs Are Dead?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early October, Clarissa Shen, vice president and international executive of online educator Udacity, spoke with the Economic Times<\/a> about her company\u2019s outlook and their massive online open courses (MOOCs). \u201cThey are dead,\u201d she said bluntly, referring to the product that started Udacity in the first place.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the latest report by the Khan Academy, a non-profit MOOC provider, shows that they pulled in donations exceeding $24 m in 2015<\/a>. edX, the second largest MOOC provider in the world, managed $ 22 m<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shen didn\u2019t get it quite right. MOOCs aren\u2019t dead; Udacity just hasn\u2019t been able to sufficiently monetize them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When MOOCs Roamed Free \u2026<\/h2>\n

After Sebastian Thrun, a founder of Udacity, first transitioned his Stanford University course on AI into a MOOC in 2011, many considered the model to be a true silver bullet. Enrollment numbers stretched into six figures and included people from all walks of life.<\/p>\n

Several competitors started their own online courses. The New York Times declared 2012 the year of the MOOC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But soon after, some troubling data began to congeal. People from around the world were enrolling in droves, but few were completing the courses. Often less than 10% of enrollees would see it through to the end.<\/p>\n

Many for-profit MOOC providers changed gears. They adopted new business models that inevitably included an expanded sales team.<\/p>\n

But at the same time, the non-profit MOOC providers doubled down. By filing as 501(c) non-profit entities, partnering with universities around the world, and making up the rest in donations, MOOC providers without a mandate to drive profits found themselves in a nice place.<\/p>\n

While the competition pivoted, they swallowed up the leftovers and educated any stranger that passed through their site\u2019s portal.<\/p>\n

And it turned out well for upper management. Khan Academy executives took home just over 10% of total revenue in 2015. Chief officers at edX pocketed 8.5%.<\/p>\n

Define MOOC<\/h2>\n

Profits aside, there are other reasons why Shen didn\u2019t get the MOOC death pronouncement quite right. For one, Udacity still offers MOOCs, many of them for free. So does Coursera, Alison, FutureLearn, Design2Learn, and several others.<\/p>\n

But in a broader sense, the product of Udacity\u2019s pivot\u2014the Nanodegree\u2014isn\u2019t that different from a MOOC in the first place.<\/p>\n

While the definition of \u201cMOOC\u201d can be found in its name, pinning down an exact meaning can be fairly difficult. Here\u2019s what most would agree on: they\u2019re massive and can scale to infinite degrees in theory. They\u2019re open and available for anyone willing to take them. There is no application process, no vetting based on background or ability, no turning anyone down. And they take place online.<\/p>\n

For their Nanodegrees, Udacity puts students through an application process and charges a monthly fee. As a result, classes are smaller. They also partner with companies with the intent to prepare a student for a specific job instead of teaching a more general curriculum.<\/p>\n

Udacity\u2019s courses could be described as medium-sized restricted online courses, but MROC doesn\u2019t exactly roll off the tongue.<\/p>\n

The Future of MOOCs<\/h2>\n

MOOCs didn\u2019t turn out to be silver bullets (and neither have for-profit spin offs), but there\u2019s also good reason to welcome new analogues.<\/p>\n

Coursera, one of the first MOOC providers to switch to a more aggressive, for-profit model, found that, by charging for their courses, completion rates jumped from 10% to 60%<\/a>. Udacity\u2019s premium courses include a hiring guarantee. If students don\u2019t land a job after six months of completing a course, the company will refund their tuition.<\/p>\n

So if MOOCs aren\u2019t dead, why would Udacity want the public to think so?<\/p>\n

For one, the company is known for its bravado. Sebastian Thrun once shared a prediction with the Economist<\/a> that, in 50 years, there will only be ten universities on earth. Company rhetoric tends to fall under the standard presentation-at-a-tech-conference category. Udacity\u2019s mission is \u201cto democratize education.\u201d<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the bottom line: the company is selling a product that isn\u2019t all that different from its competitors, including the non-profit hold-outs. They need to distinguish themselves and ensure potential clients that this is <\/em>the MOOC<\/span> Nanodegree they\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

Yes, MOOCs are wonderful. They have changed the world and opened up countless avenues to education, lifelong learning, and career advancement. They are not dead, and they won\u2019t be anytime soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOOCs didn\u2019t turn out to be silver bullets (and neither have for-profit spin offs), but there\u2019s also good reason to welcome new analogues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-industry-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMOOCs Are Dead? - eLearningInside News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Profits aside, there are other reasons why Shen didn\u2019t get the MOOC time of death right. Udacity still offers MOOCs, many of them for free.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MOOCs Are Dead? - eLearningInside News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Profits aside, there are other reasons why Shen didn\u2019t get the MOOC time of death right. Udacity still offers MOOCs, many of them for free.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"eLearningInside News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/elearninginside\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-14T16:38:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-11T18:19:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/are-moocs-dead-moocs-and-elearning-revolution.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Henry Kronk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@henry_kronk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@elearninginside\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Henry Kronk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Henry Kronk\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1e85c04cd7c6505413ccb5e4cc7a72f7\"},\"headline\":\"MOOCs Are Dead?\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-14T16:38:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-11T18:19:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":729,\"commentCount\":3,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/are-moocs-dead-moocs-and-elearning-revolution.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\",\"Industry News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2017\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/\",\"name\":\"MOOCs Are Dead? - eLearningInside News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/are-moocs-dead-moocs-and-elearning-revolution.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-14T16:38:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-11T18:19:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1e85c04cd7c6505413ccb5e4cc7a72f7\"},\"description\":\"Profits aside, there are other reasons why Shen didn\u2019t get the MOOC time of death right. Udacity still offers MOOCs, many of them for free.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/are-moocs-dead-moocs-and-elearning-revolution.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/are-moocs-dead-moocs-and-elearning-revolution.jpg\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":1200},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/moocs-are-dead\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MOOCs Are Dead?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"eLearningInside News\",\"description\":\"News for eLearning\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1e85c04cd7c6505413ccb5e4cc7a72f7\",\"name\":\"Henry Kronk\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6a8612979c6e9de062dc2b2761d5b8590a1093c981318be765d6398dba5243c1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6a8612979c6e9de062dc2b2761d5b8590a1093c981318be765d6398dba5243c1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6a8612979c6e9de062dc2b2761d5b8590a1093c981318be765d6398dba5243c1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Henry Kronk\"},\"description\":\"Henry Kronk began his writing career as an intern at The Burlington Free Press in Burlington, Vermont, his hometown. After studying English at McGill University in Montreal, he went to work full time as a freelancer while living abroad in countries such as Greece, New Zealand, and Vietnam. His journalism has been published by CKUT 90.3 FM, Montreal Rampage, Potent, and HNGN. He has also produced a series of audio interviews concerning Canadian poetry for Vallum: Contemporary Poetry. His latest work is Code Burst, a podcast that investigates a free coding bootcamp in the Appalachian region of the U.S. that seeks to retrain ex-coal miners for jobs in the tech industry, along with the promise learning to code offers more broadly. Email: henry@elearninginside.com\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/henry_kronk\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.elearninginside.com\\\/author\\\/henry\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MOOCs Are Dead? - eLearningInside News","description":"Profits aside, there are other reasons why Shen didn\u2019t get the MOOC time of death right. Udacity still offers MOOCs, many of them for free.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MOOCs Are Dead? - eLearningInside News","og_description":"Profits aside, there are other reasons why Shen didn\u2019t get the MOOC time of death right. Udacity still offers MOOCs, many of them for free.","og_url":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/","og_site_name":"eLearningInside News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/elearninginside\/","article_published_time":"2017-10-14T16:38:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-11T18:19:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1800,"height":1200,"url":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/are-moocs-dead-moocs-and-elearning-revolution.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Henry Kronk","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@henry_kronk","twitter_site":"@elearninginside","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Henry Kronk","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/"},"author":{"name":"Henry Kronk","@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e85c04cd7c6505413ccb5e4cc7a72f7"},"headline":"MOOCs Are Dead?","datePublished":"2017-10-14T16:38:50+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-11T18:19:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/"},"wordCount":729,"commentCount":3,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/are-moocs-dead-moocs-and-elearning-revolution.jpg","articleSection":["Articles","Industry News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2017","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/","url":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/","name":"MOOCs Are Dead? - eLearningInside News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/are-moocs-dead-moocs-and-elearning-revolution.jpg","datePublished":"2017-10-14T16:38:50+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-11T18:19:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e85c04cd7c6505413ccb5e4cc7a72f7"},"description":"Profits aside, there are other reasons why Shen didn\u2019t get the MOOC time of death right. Udacity still offers MOOCs, many of them for free.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/are-moocs-dead-moocs-and-elearning-revolution.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/are-moocs-dead-moocs-and-elearning-revolution.jpg","width":1800,"height":1200},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/moocs-are-dead\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MOOCs Are Dead?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/","name":"eLearningInside News","description":"News for eLearning","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e85c04cd7c6505413ccb5e4cc7a72f7","name":"Henry Kronk","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a8612979c6e9de062dc2b2761d5b8590a1093c981318be765d6398dba5243c1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a8612979c6e9de062dc2b2761d5b8590a1093c981318be765d6398dba5243c1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a8612979c6e9de062dc2b2761d5b8590a1093c981318be765d6398dba5243c1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Henry Kronk"},"description":"Henry Kronk began his writing career as an intern at The Burlington Free Press in Burlington, Vermont, his hometown. After studying English at McGill University in Montreal, he went to work full time as a freelancer while living abroad in countries such as Greece, New Zealand, and Vietnam. His journalism has been published by CKUT 90.3 FM, Montreal Rampage, Potent, and HNGN. He has also produced a series of audio interviews concerning Canadian poetry for Vallum: Contemporary Poetry. His latest work is Code Burst, a podcast that investigates a free coding bootcamp in the Appalachian region of the U.S. that seeks to retrain ex-coal miners for jobs in the tech industry, along with the promise learning to code offers more broadly. Email: henry@elearninginside.com","sameAs":["https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com","https:\/\/x.com\/henry_kronk"],"url":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/author\/henry\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}