New MOOC ‘Instreamia’ offers language learning with a twist


Scott Rapp and Ryan Rapp are purveyors of a new twist in the MOOC trend, what I’m calling ‘’mini-MOOCs.’’ That is, a startup or professor launching an open online course intended for the masses on their own, without the help of a large university or consortium of universities, Edudemic reports. Scott, a former Spanish teacher turned computer data systems specialist, is teaching a free Spanish language MOOC course that started in January 2013. It’s a way to test the concept of their Instreamia language-learning startup. The Rapp brothers are a team to watch in the ed tech space. In the Wild West of MOOCs, their experiment shows how some teachers and entrepreneurs see the trend as a way to either make a buck, test an idea, build an audience, market their product or all of the above. In addition to powerhouse MOOC providers out there such as Coursera, edX and Udacity, we are seeing superstar economics professors Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok launched a MOOC course in development economics at their Marginal Revolution University via their popular blog Marginal Revolution. Similarly, the Rapp brothers are programmers and consultants turned startup entrepreneurs who are launching a MOOC Spanish course to boost their startup, Instreamia.

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