Anuar Andres Lequerica is Class Central’s analyst. MOOCWatch is a monthly digest of everything related to MOOCs. Subscribe.

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As the number of Coursera students from India reaches 1.3 million (an increase of 70% from last year), more MOOC initiatives are launched in that country to reach millions.

NIIT partners with edX to use MOOCs to train half a million people in tech skills in India. Indian IT firm Infosys partners with Udacity, edX, and Coursera to train its 194,000 employees.

The Narendra Modi government is set to make online courses count towards the college degree. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) mandates that 10% of the curriculum in the country’s 10,800 technical institutes should come from MOOCs. The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), will offer its MOOCs in 73 state colleges.

The number of Coursera students from the UK reached half a million (an increase of 50% from last year), and FutureLearn launched credit-granting MOOCs. EdX reaches 7 million students worldwide, and Xuetang X, a MOOC platform in China, reaches 2.7 million students.

Harvard will launch a virtual reality version of its most popular MOOC on edX, and director Werner Herzog will teach a filmmaking course on MasterClass.

You’ll find all of this news and more in this month’s MOOCWatch.

TOP STORIES

VR MOOCS via Class Central
Harvard will release a virtual reality version of its most popular MOOC, CS50, on edX this fall.

FUTURELEARN OFFERS CREDITS AND DETAILED CERTIFICATE via Class Central
FutureLearn has launched MOOC sequences similar to Coursera’s Specializations, with some of FutureLearn’s schemes even offering academic credit. FutureLearn has also launched a more-detailed version of its certificate.

MOOC vs. BOOK via Class Central
Are MOOCs like books, or are they really different? Explore this question with two case studies that look at popular MOOC professors who have also published a book.

NEW TECHDEGREE via INC
Treehouse, an online learning provider, has launched a program called Techdegree to train students in different programming skills within 6–12 months (similar to Udacity’s Nanodegree). It costs $399–$599 per month, depending on what you study.

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

I’ve had lots of great talks w/ @DKeithClimate about the economics of energy. Now you can take his class for free: https://t.co/L5Q6lSm6zf

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 19, 2016

MOOC SCHOLARSHIPS, GRANT, AND COMPETITION

The Foundation for Blended and Online Learning has 50 college scholarships for high school students graduating from online / blended learning high schools.

Macquarie University offers full undergraduate scholarships to select students that complete its Big History MOOC on Coursera and apply to study at the university.

Coursera and edX have had financial aid available for a while. Udacity just launched its own scholarship program.

The Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute has a new PhD Fellowship to support research on K-12 online and blended teaching and learning.

Chinese ride-sharing giant Didi partners with Udacity to launch a $100K ride-sharing algorithm design competition.

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OXFORD AND MOOCS via The Guardian
Oxford University’s official historian urges it to embrace online learning before it’s made redundant by others deploying it.

MOOC REVENUE via Daily Camera
The University of Colorado expects to make at least $250,000 per year from its Coursera MOOCs.

MOOCS FOR REFUGEES via DW
Berlin-based online university for refugees, Kiron University, helps refugees complete 60 credits-worth of MOOCs for free and enroll in partner universities.

TECH MOOCS FOR INDIA via Indian Express
The number of Coursera students from India reaches 1.3 million, an increase of 70% from last year. Tech courses are more popular in India than in any of the other ten countries with the highest MOOC enrollment numbers.

TECH MOOCS FOR INDIA PART II via Economic Times
NIIT partners with edX to use MOOCs to train half a million people in tech skills within India.

TECH MOOCS FOR INDIA PART III via Business Standard
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) mandates that 10% of the curriculum in the country’s 10,800 technical institutes should come from MOOCs.

MOOC COURSE REPORT via Class Central
A list of 450+ free online courses starting in May 2016.

NEW ONLINE COURSES AND MOOCs via Class Central
The list of 114 new courses added to Class Central in April 2016.

BOOTCAMP PARTNERS WITH PUBLISHER via prweb
Pearson will offer universities a number of online courses developed by bootcamp / online course provider General Assembly.

FILMMAKING MOOC via Masterclass
Director Werner Herzog will teach a filmmaking course on the MasterClass platform.

ADAPTIVE MOOCS via The Pie News
McGraw-Hill adaptive learning software is to be incorporated into the edX algebra MOOC.

MOOCS FOR EMPLOYEE TRAINING via Livemint
Indian IT firm Infosys partners with Udacity, edX, and Coursera to train its 194,000 employees.

MOOCS FOR EMPLOYEE TRAINING PART II via Udemy
PayPal partners with Udemy to train its 5,000 employees.

MOOCS IN COLLEGE via Deccan Herald
The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), will offer its MOOCs in 73 state colleges.

BUILD A MOOC via EdSurge
Teachable, a platform that helps teachers build and run online courses, has raised $2.5 million in funds and has reached 1 million students.

COMPUTER TA via WSJ
This is a fascinating story about a computerized teaching assistant at Georgia Tech, with implications for scaling online courses.

UPDATE ON GEORGIA TECH CS MASTERS via Inside Higher Ed
Georgia Tech’s big CS masters program (which is run with Udacity) now has over 3000 students and has received over 10,000 applications. Georgia Tech’s president says they are planning to launch another program.

USING FACEBOOK IN MOOCS via EdSurge
New study analyzing MOOC students’ engagement and interactions on Facebook groups.

WRITING MOOC STUDY via Duke University
New Duke University study analyzing the learning taking place in its writing MOOC.

VIRTUAL TEAMS IN MOOCS via NovoEd
MOOC completion rates rise significantly when learners are enrolled in virtual teams, according to a new Stanford University study.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNERS SURVEY via Campus Technology
Large survey of higher education instructional designers reveals their biggest skills and obstacles.

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS DISCUSS MOOCS via Berkeley University
The leaders of Stanford and Berkeley discuss what they see as the pros and cons of online learning at a summit in the Bay Area.

LEARNING WITH MOOCS CONFERENCE
One of the keynote speakers as this year’s Learning with MOOCs conference will be Reshma Saujani, the CEO of Girls Who Code. The conference takes place on October 6–7 at UPenn.

MOOCS IN THE UK via the Chartered Management Institute
The number of Coursera students from the UK reaches half a million, which is an increase of 50% from last year.

MOOCS FROM DOWN UNDER via Melbourne University
The University of Melbourne reaches the milestones of 1 million students enrolled and 20 MOOCs on Coursera.

MOOCS AND TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT via EdWeek
Thirty-nine percent of enrollees in Harvard’s and MIT’s MOOCs have identified themselves as teachers.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EDX via edX
EdX just celebrated its fourth anniversary. The platform has over 900 MOOCs and more than 7 million students, and 23 million course enrollments so far.

MOOCS IN CHINA via cctv.com
Xuetang X, an Open edX-based MOOC platform in China, has reached 2.7 million students.

MOBILE USE FOR MOOCS via Duke University
Over 50% of Coursera users use mobile at least some of the time for their courses, and 24% access their course materials only on mobile devices.

ANALYZING MOOCS via Class Central
Using a value-creation framework to evaluate an education MOOC.

MOOC-TAKING ADVICE via Class Central
Thirty terrific tips and tricks to help students stay engaged in MOOCs.

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.