MOOCWatch is a monthly digest of everything related to MOOCs. Subscribe. Read the Jan 2015 Edition.

Last year we predicted that credit-grantng MOOCs would be a key trend in 2014–we were wrong. The Big 3 MOOC providers, Coursera, Udacity, and edX, introduced their own credentials. Specializations are already a strong driver for Coursera making them more than a million dollars in monthly revenues.

The MOOC ecosystem matured a lot in 2014. The big three employ more than a hundred people each, while universities are employing teams of video assistants, instructional designers, TA’s, and other staff to support the more than 3,000 instructors that have created these courses.

The number of universities offering MOOCs has doubled to cross 400 universities. 22 of the top 25 US universities in US News World Report rankngs are now offering courses online for free.

Read MOOCWatch / DOWNLOAD (PDF)

TOP STORIES

HOW DOES COURSERA MAKE MONEY?

Many wonder what the business model will be for MOOC providers to monetize their offerings. Coursera has tried many different types of paid offerings and services, but it appears to have found a strong one in verified certificates, which cost $30-70 per person per course, and is currently resulting in over $1M a month in revenues. READ MORE.

IVERSITY PLOTS A NEW PATH FOR EUROPEAN MOOCS

iversity recently raised a new round of venture-financing and will focus on its regional strength, taking a slightly different path from Coursera and edX. iversity’s vision is to be a platform for European universities to offer students credit-granting courses from other universities. READ MORE

MOOCS ‘WILL NOT TRANSFORM EDUCATION’, SAYS FUTURELEARN CHIEF

Massive open online courses will not transform education or destroy the university system, and their potential to disrupt has been overhyped, according to the head of the UK Mooc platform FutureLearn. READ MORE.

About MOOCWatch

MOOCWatch is a new monthly digest of information related to MOOCs meant for professors, administrators, or others involved in education who 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