Anuar Andres Lequerica is Class Central’s analyst.

MOOCWatch is a monthly digest of everything related to MOOCs. Subscribe.

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The Learning with MOOCs III conference was announced. It will be held on October 6–7, 2016, at the University of Pennsylvania.

The MOOC field continues to expand rapidly. Coursera announced at its Partners Conference last week that it has reached 18 million learners and 3.6+ million course completions. Meanwhile, Spanish MOOC platform Miriada X has reached two million students.

The University Of Michigan plans to launch at least 200 MOOCs by 2017, and its business school has reached more than one million enrollments. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School is close to reaching three million enrollments. The number of South Korean MOOCs is expected to surpass 100 this year. In financial news, Udemy announced it will simplify its prices to $20–$50.

We have documented a number of ways to get credit for taking MOOCs. We’ve also developed a Twitter-like Follow button so you can follow your favorite MOOC subjects.

All that said, a new survey has found that (so far) only 18% of adults are familiar with MOOCs.

Impressive numbers at #CourseraNL strategy track : 18M learners, 40% female, 3.6+M course completions, 17K+ years of video watched !

— Christelle Bozelle (@C_Bozelle) March 20, 2016

Top Stories

MOOCS FOR CREDIT via Class Central
We created a list of all the ways you can receive academic credit for completing MOOCs.

ROOM FOR EXPANSION OF MOOCS via Pew Research Center
A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds that (so far) only 18% of adults in the U.S. are familiar with MOOCs.

UDEMY SIMPLIFIES ITS PRICES via Udemy Blog
Udemy decided that all courses will be priced from $20–$50 each starting on April 4. Udemy analyzed lots of data on the prices of courses purchased by its ten million students.

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

TEACHING A MOOC
MOOC instructors at the University of Michigan and at IIM Bangalore talk about their experiences so far.

My Journey with the MOOC – MOOCs @ IIM Bangalore

MOOC DESIGN
This month there were two great articles with helpful tips to consider when designing MOOCs.

Dr. Chuck’s Blog » My MOOC Approach / Pedagogy
Donald Clark Plan B: 7 ways to design sticky MOOCs

MOOC COURSE REPORT via Class Central
A list of 550+ free online courses starting in March 2016.

New MOOCs via Class Central
The list of 169 new courses added to Class Central in February 2016.

EXPLORING COURSE STRUCTURE via Class Central
Study analyzing HarvardX MOOCs’ course structure (the type, frequency, and grading of various activities in a course).

ARTS MOOCS via Class Central
In-depth look at the current state and needs of arts MOOCs, and a look at them in comparison to MOOCs in other subjects.

STUDY ON STUDENT PERSISTENCE IN MOOCS via Vanderbilt
New Stanford/Vanderbilt study on what factors contribute to student persistence and engagement in MOOCs. We couldn’t figure out whether the MOOCs in the study were self-paced or session-based.

MENTORS AND MOOCS via Class Central
OpenClassrooms founder Mathieu Nebra describes Benjamin Bloom’s breakthrough discovery in education from the 1980s, and then looks at why it wasn’t possible to scale the methods — until now.

ONLINE NON-MOOC ENROLLMENTS CONTINUE TO RISE via The Gazette
Enrollments in non-MOOC credit-based courses reach 65,428 at the University of Iowa. Iowa residents’ enrollment in non-MOOC non-credit courses reached 599,552.

FOLLOW BUTTON FOR EDUCATION via Class Central
There are now more than 5000 MOOCS from 600 universities around the world (with 550+ courses starting in March 2016) on the Class Central website. Class Central has developed a Twitter-like Follow button that enables you to follow universities, subjects, and course providers.

MOOCS and ON-CAMPUS TEACHING via Class Central
Great article describing the experience (and results) of a MOOC instructor flipping his on-campus class.

OMNIPRESENT MOOC
Online courses are starting to be made available during flights and in prisons.

LinkedIn teams up with Virgin America to stream online courses on flights — San Jose Mercury News
Defy Ventures redefines ‘the hustle’ from prison yard to startup office | TechCrunch

CONTEST INSIDE MOOC via edX Blog
Kyoto University’s MOOC on human evolution and primatology held a competition for learners to win a trip to Japan with all expenses paid.

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.