MOOCs are built, and operate, many different ways. They usually consist of a mixture of video lectures, questionnaires, discussions in forums and live webcast sessions.
The idea is to make education cheaper and more accessible. But most people don’t receive credit for completing the courses, and providers have been struggling to find a sustainable business model.
The difficulty faced by the emerging industry was apparent last week with the release of a study by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education that showed MOOCs have relatively few active users and that user engagement falls off dramatically during a course.
The widely publicized study analyzed the movement of 1 million users through 16 courses Penn offered from June 2012 to June 2013. Among the key findings: Course completion rates were very low, averaging 4 percent.
Currently there are three major providers: edX, a nonprofit platform that works with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and two for-profit providers, Coursera Inc. and Udacity Inc. Coursera is the biggest, with more than 4 million users.
Universities all over the world are signing up to participate.
For the Antioch program, the contract between Coursera and Penn prohibited modifications to the course. But Antioch could use it at any time, and it could choose to use only parts of the video.
“There are a lot of factors that go into a decision like this,” said Filreis, the professor. “I much preferred the general idea that if people used the course they would themselves participate while I’m offering the course.”
There’s no standard for agreements between universities and the providers when MOOCs are created. Generally, the intellectual property questions are solved at each university, through discussions between university administrators and faculty or staff.
“As between edX and the university, the university owns the course content. Beyond that, it is a matter between the universities and their professors,” said Tena Herlihy, general counsel of edX.
- Extron AV Switching, Streaming, and Control Systems Aid Higher Learning at Idaho’s First Medical School - June 1, 2021
- Extron XTP, Streaming, and Control Systems Empower Point Park University’s Varsity Esports Program - June 1, 2021
- Extron NAV Series Delivers AVoIP Throughout Allied Health Veterans Hall at UNC Wilmington - June 1, 2021