Over 23 million students signed up for at least one MOOC in 2016, triggering the total number of learners to 58 million, according to data provided by Class Central. Additionally, 2,600 new courses were announced in 2016 (up from 1,800 last year), taking the total number of MOOCs to 6,850 from over 700 universities –disclosed Dhawal Shah, founder and CEO of Class Central, on an article in EdSurge.
Since the first massive course was offered by Stanford professors in late 2011, MOOC providers have raised over $400 million in capital and now employ more than a thousand staff.
The “Big Three” MOOC providers — Coursera, Udacity, edX—combined potentially made around $100 million in revenues in 2016, according to the same source.
Major trends as of 2016:
- Many MOOCs are incorporating smaller cohorts to allow students to learn at their own pace.
- College credit, credentials and degrees are the bet among MOOC providers in order to generate revenues.
- Regional MOOC providers that offer courses in languages other than English are expanding. Notorious examples are XuetangX (China), MiriadaX (Latin America and Spain), France Universite Numerique, Edraak (Middle East and North Africa), Swayam (India) and EduOpen (Italy).
- More paid-only courses (mostly on the “professional education” category), a decrease of standalone courses and an increase of business-to- business oriented courses.
These are the top five providers:
- Coursera – 23 million learners and 1,700 active courses
- edX – 10 million learners and 1300 courses
- XuetangX – 6 million learners and 1000 courses
- FutureLearn – 5.3 million and 480 courses
- Udacity – 4 million
