Anuar Andres Lequerica is Class Central’s analyst.

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As the number of students who signed up for at least one MOOC in 2015 crossed the 35 million mark, MOOC providers are continuing to launch new programs: Udacity have announced Nanodegree Plus, which comes with a job guarantee, and Coursera have announced 35 new Specializations.

The move toward offering academic credit is now gaining pace as well. Last year, edX partnered with Arizona State University, the American Council on Education, Charter Oak State College, and MIT to offer MOOCs for credit. This month, it was announced that six universities (Boston University among them) will start a global credit transfer system for their MOOCs. Malaysia has announced that its state universities will grant and transfer MOOC credits. Georgia Tech/Udacity’s online computer science master’s program is approaching a total enrollment of 3,000 students.

Top Stories

UDACITY JOB GUARANTEE via Class Central
Udacity will refund your tuition if you haven’t found a job within six months of graduating from their Nanodegree Plus program.

MOOCS CREDIT TRANSFER via Class Central
Six universities start a global credit transfer system for their MOOCs. 

NEW COURSERA SPECIALIZATIONS via Coursera
Coursera announced more than 35 new Specializations for 2016. Specializations consist of a series of courses in a field of study, followed by a capstone project.

MALAYSIA MOOCS FOR CREDIT via New Straits Times
The country has announced that its state universities will grant and transfer MOOC credits.

GEORGIA TECH OMCS DEGREE via e-Literate
An update on and analysis of the big Georgia Tech/Udacity’s online computer science master’s program. The program graduated its first class of students. All 20 of them..

FRESHMAN YEAR MOOCS via Inside Higher Ed
An update on Arizona State University’s MOOCs-for-credit initiative with edX. Only 323 of 34,086 learners are eligible to take advantage of Arizona State’s MOOCs-for-credit initiative with edX.

Behind the scenes at Udacity. src

MOOC STATS AND TRENDS IN 2015 via Class Central
The total number of students who signed up for at least one MOOC in 2015 crossed the 35 million mark — up from an estimated 17 million in 2014. We review the top trends of 2015, including MOOCs finding new business models, the death of free certificates, and the rise of self-paced courses.

MOOC RATINGS via Class Central
Here’s the list of the ten best-reviewed MOOCs of 2015.

TEN MOST POPULAR MOOCS via Class Central
The best new courses starting in January 2016.

MOOC COURSE REPORT via Class Central
A list of 516 free online courses starting in January 2016.

New MOOCs via Class Central
The list of 196 new courses added to Class Central in December 2015.

THE RISE OF MOOC via Forbes
An analysis of what’s fueling the rapid growth of MOOCs and what to expect in the coming years.

MOOC BLENDED LEARNING MODELS via eCampus News
A new study reviews the different types of blended learning models using MOOCs in schools and universities.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING IN MOOCS via eSchool News
New report on incorporating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to increase accessibility for all students when creating online courses.

MOOC DATA USED TO UNDERSTAND LEARNERS via The Huffington Post
As edX passes six million registered students, CEO Anant Agarwal discusses how MOOCs have improved our understanding of learning patterns and how India is benefitting from them.

DEEP LEARNING MOOC via Class Central
Udacity will launch a MOOC about learning how to use Google’s open-source software library for machine intelligence. Google will be involved in designing and running the course.

SYNCHRONOUS EVENTS IN MOOCS via Class Central
A great article full of tips on organizing successful synchronous events in MOOCs from NovoEd’s Aya Jennifer Sakaguchi.

QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENTS VS QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT via Class Central
An insightful article analyzing when to use qualitative assessments versus quantitative assessment in MOOCs.

MOOC CONFERENCES
MIT’s online learning conference has issued a call for papers. Columbia’s online learning conference released its recorded sessions.

MOOC SCHOLARSHIPS FOR 7TH GRADERS via edX
EdX partners with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to offer scholarships to 7th graders who complete a MOOC. 

GOOGLE/INDIA MOOCS via DNA India
Google partners with universities in India to offer more than 40 free online courses on all sorts of subjects. 

About MOOCWatch

MOOCWatch is a 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

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.