MOOCWatch July 2016: Top 50 MOOCs
MOOCs spread to Africa, and become more accessible to both refugees and prisoners; a POV on dropping out of uni and starting MOOCs; and more.
Anuar Andres Lequerica is Class Central’s analyst. MOOCWatch is a monthly digest of everything related to MOOCs. Subscribe.
We compiled the list of the 50 best-reviewed free online courses of the past few years. Stanford has 5 courses on the list and MIT has 3. Coursera is the top provider with 26 courses in the Top 50, and edX is second with 10 courses. The University of Illinois’ Aric Rindfleisch has two courses in the top 50.
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FutureLearn crosses 4 million students as MIT reaches 4 million enrollments on edX. The University of Queensland reaches 1 million enrollments and the University of Adelaide crosses 300,000 enrollments. Both are Australian universities partnered with edX. TU Delft reaches 1 million enrollments while Microsoft also reaches 1 million enrollments, both on edX. Hillsdale College has enrolled more than 1 million students in its online courses.
Author James Patterson’s writing MOOC competition winner will co-author a book with him.
A MOOC-enthusiast has received 100 certificates. Plus, there are new MOOC studies and surveys.
Find all these stories and more in this month’s MOOCWatch.
Please share MOOCWatch with your colleagues in the online learning field.
TOP STORIES
TOP 50 MOOCS via Class Central
Our list of the 50 best-reviewed free online courses in the world.
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MOOC ON GOOGLE’S TENSORFLOW via Class Central
Kadenze launches a new course on Deep Learning using Google’s TensorFlow.
PAID-ONLY MOOCS via Class Central
Coursera launches a number of paid-only MOOCs. Students are also able to enroll by applying for Coursera’s financial aid.
CODECADEMY RAISES MILLIONS via EdSurge
The startup raised $30 million dollars to fuel its international expansion.
NEW STUDIES OF MOOCS & OTHER ONLINE COURSES
Study on the low amount of cheating in an online course.
Study finds few students cheat the system with digital homework questions via InsiderHigherEd
Study on grouping MOOC students by preferred communication mode.
Grouping MOOC Students by Communication Mode Doesn’t Help Completion via Campus Technology
Study on grouping MOOC students by preferred language of participation.
The Effect of Multilingual Facilitation on Active Participation in MOOCs (pdf)
Study interviewing 100 MOOC students to discover their learning strategies and behaviors
What We Learned From Talking with 100 MOOC Students via Education Week
The Life Between Big Data Log Events: Learners’ Strategies to Overcome Challenges in MOOCs
Study on a software program that can correct the homework submissions of computer science MOOC students.
[1607.02902] sk_p: a neural program corrector for MOOCs
STUDENTS & FACULTY CONTRAST
Surveys show that 90% of non-MOOC online college students rate the experience as good or better than in-person classes while 85% of faculty members have little experience with digital learning materials.
CLEANING & ONLINE EDUCATION
New online learning platform from MaidPro to train cleaning service professionals.
ANOTHER BIG JOURNALISM MOOC GRANT
The Knight Foundation gives News University a $758,000 grant to produce more online courses to train journalists. Last month, the Knight Foundation also gave the University of Texas a $600,000 grant to expand its journalism online courses.
TEN MOST POPULAR MOOCS via Class Central
The best new courses starting in July 2016.
Interested in groundbreaking research in #MOOC pedagogy? Read @harvardonline reports: https://t.co/787qWUO0JQ pic.twitter.com/LiPvq6prOS
— Harvard Online (@HarvardOnline) July 19, 2016
CERTIFIED MOOC
A European MOOC received official accreditation.
WRITING MOOC COMPETITION via Masterclass
Best-selling author James Patterson’s writing MOOC ran a competition among students and the winner will co-author a book with him.
EDX PRIZE FOR MOOC INSTRUCTORS via edX
11 MOOC instructors have been selected as finalists for the edX Prize.
UPCOMING EDX CONFERENCE IN PARIS via edX
The edX Global Forum will take place on November 14 – 16 at Sorbonne University.
ONLINE COURSES IN SCHOOLS
Pearson will offer more than 600 online courses to schools in Massachusetts.
ONLINE COURSES FOR WALMART EMPLOYEES via EdSurge
Walmart teams up with Cengage Learning to launch a free accredited online high school for its 2.3 million employees.
ANDROID COURSES FOR INDIA via Google India
Google launches new Android online courses to train 2 million developers in India with the help of several partners.
MOOC COURSE REPORT via Class Central
A list of 850+ free online courses starting in July 2016.
NEW ONLINE COURSES AND MOOCs via Class Central
The list of 202 new courses added to Class Central in June 2016.
LOW COST ONLINE COURSES
Excelsior College teams up with Cengage Learning to offer low cost for-credit online courses ($400-$550 per course).
UDACITY VS. ON-CAMPUS INSTRUCTION via Class Central
A student explains why he dropped out of a prestigious computer science program and enrolled in Udacity.
STUDENT REVIEW OF INTRO TO PROGRAMMING NANODEGREE via Class Central
The same student reviews Udacity’s Intro to Programming Nanodegree.
NANODEGREE SCHOLARSHIPS via Udacity
Google and Udacity announced that the first 100 students to graduate from their Android Basics Nanodegree would receive full scholarships to enroll in the Android Developer Nanodegree.
SELF-DRIVING CAR NANODEGREE via Class Central
New Udacity Nanodegree to train self-driving car engineers.
FREE DEGREES FOR REFUGEES via BBC
The University of the People, an online, non-MOOC, tuition-free accredited institution, offers 500 spaces for Syrian refugees.
MOOCS FOR HIGH SCHOOL & RETURNING STUDENTS
The University of Sydney launches a Specialization on Coursera to help prepare students for college.
MOOCS IN PRISON
A number of universities will start offering free online courses to incarcerated individuals.
LACK OF AWARENESS OF DIGITAL COURSES via Udemy
Excellent blog post by Udemy CEO Dennis Yang on the importance of promoting life-learning and digital education.
MOOCS FROM AFRICA
The University of Witwatersrand becomes the first African university to launch MOOCs on edX. The University of Cape Town was the first African university to launch MOOCs on Coursera.
FREE CERTIFICATES FOR STUDENTS
Northwestern University students can now get free Coursera certificates for completing their university’s MOOCs.
MOOC INTERVIEWS
Interviews with Coursera’s Daphne Koller and Udacity’s Sebastian Thrun on the past and future of MOOCs.
Coursera president: bursting the Moocs bubble a boon for us via TimesHigheEd
Udacity turns 5: Sebastian Thrun talks A.I. and plans for a nanodegree in self-driving cars via Venturebeat
100 CERTIFICATES via edX
A lawyer from Vancouver has completed 100 MOOCs!
BLOCKCHAIN FOR LEARNING
Article discussing 10 ways blockchain can be used in digital learning.
MITx JOBS
MITx has job opening for a learning designer and a course developer.
Professional Learning Designer
Course Developer
About MOOCWatch
MOOCWatch is a monthly digest of information related to MOOCs meant for professors and administrators, or others who are involved in education and want to stay up-to-date in the MOOC space. In addition to broad coverage, MOOCWatch also contains unique data sourced from Class Central (such as course popularity rankings). To subscribe to MOOCWatch, visit classcentral.com/moocwatch
Anuar Andres Lequerica is Class Central’s analyst. He has a graduate degree in education policy and has taken at least eight online courses across all the different platforms.
