Dive Brief:
- The University of Michigan, a founding partner of edX competitor Coursera, has joined the ranks of edX users with a suite of four classes that will enroll students throughout the spring and summer.
- In announcing the massive open online courses, the university said they reflect a commitment to reaching as broad a range of global learners as possible en route to transforming 200 courses into MOOCs by 2017.
- The four edX courses are in finance, data science, social work, and learning analytics, and they add to a range of MOOCs the university already offers on Coursera and NovoEd.
Dive Insight:
Inside Higher Ed conducted an analysis of founding partners of Coursera and edX, finding the nonprofit platform originally created as a joint project of Harvard and MIT has recruited all of Coursera’s early adopters. By contrast, none of the schools that started with edX have expanded their MOOC presence to Coursera. EdX highlights its nonprofit status compared to Coursera’s for-profit model in marketing its platform.
Like Udacity, the other early, for-profit powerhouse in the MOOC world, Coursera has begun to explore new, career-oriented options to support its business model. Its microdegrees aim to get students job-ready, created in partnership with corporations that are looking for specific skills in new hires. Some believe these career-focused, “degree” programs will be the way MOOCs will ultimately disrupt higher ed.