Dive Brief:
- Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller says the MOOC provider wants to work on changing the way student retention and demographics are perceived for online courses.
- Koller notes that among students who paid $50 for a completion certificate, retention averages are far higher than the overall rate — 63% vs. 4%.
- She also addresses the criticism that MOOCs are serving an already highly educated population by noting that some of these people are in developing countries, where online learning may still represent a unique opportunity to further their studies.
Dive Insight:
One of the most intriguing items in Koller's essay is that sign-ups in China are second only to sign-ups in the United States, thanks in part to a deal that helps Coursera's videos be more readily available behind the country's firewall.