Today there are over 8,000 MOOCs from around 750 universities worldwide. Among the top courses, we find Learning How To Learn, Harvard’s CS50x, ModPo, Coding in your Classroom, Now! The Top 50 also contains courses from prominent personalities, like The Science of the Solar System by Mike Brown and Functional Programming Principles in Scala by Martin Odersky (the creator of Scala). Most of the courses are in Technology (19) and the Sciences (15). There are 6 on Business and 8 in Humanities. Coursera is the top provider with 28 courses in the Top 50, and edX is second with 9 courses; Stanford and MIT top the list with four courses each, and the University of Cape Town has three courses in the Top 50 — two on FutureLearn and one on Coursera; The list includes courses from 35 universities and one research institute (Santa Fe), of which 22 universities are in the US; and Barbara Oakley and Terry Sejnowski, the instructors of the most popular MOOC in the world, have two courses in the top 50. Their new course Mindshift joins Learning How To Learn in the top 50.
Among the top 10, we find edX partners (Oxford, Caltech, MIT, Harvard University, Princeton University, Imperial College London, ETH Zurich, University of Chicago, and University of Pennsylvania ) and one university (Stanford) who has its own independent instance, https://lagunita.stanford.edu/.
The Fourth LWMOOC Conference, to be held October 8-10 at The University of Texas at Austin, has established as a theme "Developing and Advancing Careers with MOOCs" "Though initial visions of MOOCs as free learning resources for the masses have not yet been the reality, millions of learners around the world are using MOOCs to support professional development and career advancement," have noted the organizers of the conference. "This activity represents an important shift from the top-down model of university degrees to a learner-generated, micro-credentialing “bottom-up” model."
EdX has released a new version of its app for Android and iOS, 2.10, with video-enhanced features (after all edX's app is mostly a video companion tool). This app is available for both edX.org and Open edX independent sites' learners. The main two new features empower learners to access all course videos in one place as well as delete downloaded clips (with a left swipe in iOS or a long press in Android). Upcoming versions of the mobile app will have tablet support, and will automatically open in Spanish mode if a learner's mobile phone is set to use Spanish. Another interesting improvement at edX.org courses refers to learner profiles. Now they include the date a student joined edX and links to social media accounts. Soon, any certificate earned will be visible on their profiles. September 2017 Open edX Product Update
edX's MicroMasters successful initiative celebrates this September its first anniversary with the extension of the program to 39 subjects from 24 international universities. The University of California, Berkeley is the latest university partner to join the MicroMasters. Its first course will be Marketing Analytics, and it is scheduled for October 3. "MicroMasters programs –which are free to try– help to bridge the knowledge gap between higher education and the workplace by offering deep knowledge and credentials in the most in-demand fields, with a pathway to credit in an on-campus program," explained Anant Agarwarl, CEO at edX. Top employers, including IBM, GE, Hootsuite, Boeing, Bloomberg, Walmart, Adobe, Ford, PwC and others are endorsing MicroMasters programs.
