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Making money from MOOCs

An interesting, and brief story here on the subject of Coursera's new course format. Note in particular the first comment:
  • "So much for the democratization of information, guess Coursera's investors have finally demanded their money back. Oh well least we still have edX."
And, further news as the democratisation of online education starts to unravel in at least one online service (Udemy).

As I've mentioned before, "my own view is that if MOOCs do actually survive the next few years it will be because they have morphed to become what we already know about effective distance education, done online". MOOCs were the wrong starting point for online education, and if indeed "investors [are] finally demanded their money back" from the privately-funded Coursera this may well be the beginning of the unravelling. It's not easy to depart from free, particularly with a vast alternative supply available.

I'm not optimistic about the University of Leeds's recent initiative either, though the tie-in with a named university would be more attractive. Mention of "extend[ing] the learning opportunities for our campus-based students" may well limit the MOOC aspect to a very small number of learners prepared to pay, which again does very little to solve the high up-front cost of effective MOOC development. And, eventually the independence of MOOC learning must give way to the added hassle of on-campus attendance.

Keeping a watching brief...

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