Online students increasingly look to MOOCs to build job-specific skills that can boost their careers. And the three major providers –Coursera, edX and Udacity– are shifting to business models wherein students have options to pay for credentials, verified certificates (at $30 to $150, and that might come with course credit) and multi-course specializations or course series, in some cases enabling them access to additional instructor feedback, supplemental materials, readings and assessments and other services. "In the beginning, the return to universities came in generally marketing and publicity and giving examples of quality lectures, and showcasing certain faculty members who work for certain departments to prospective students," Ray Schroeder, an expert from the University of Illinois – Springfield, says on a U.S. News Report article. Now MOOCs offer a less expensive alternative for students, compared to paying for credit-bearing courses offered by colleges or universities in degree programs.
As MIT celebrates its first 100 years in Cambridge and prepares for the future, a symposium is analyzing what comes next. Addressing the challenge of online education, Anant Agarwal, CEO at edX, said that “it is senseless to think that what you learn for four years at age 18 will help you keep pace for the rest of your life". To help address the needs of people who want to learn new skills, edX recently began offering a degree called a “MicroMaster’s,” which requires five courses followed by a capstone exam to demonstrate mastery of a subject. One of the challenges still facing online education is how to replicate the experience of working together, as students in physical proximity often do.
edX has just launched the 2016 Open edX conference website at con.openedx.org. This event, scheduled for June 14-17 at Stanford University, is focused on the development and use of the Open edX platform. Last year it attracted over 200 developers, system administrators and education specialists. The new conference website includes 25 confirmed talks and several lighting talks.
Internet of Things: Roadmap to a Connected World https://youtu.be/mBKRWpRnyjg Entrepreneurial Negotiations: The MIT Way https://youtu.be/yjP1vDI1paM
Some experts have questioned MOOCs' effectiveness given their low student completion rates. However, in edX MOOCs, the average completion rate among learners who sign up for a verified certificate is about 60 percent – 10 times higher than students taking the class for free, says Anant Agarwar, CEO at edX. In other words, students have a greater incentive to learn and complete a MOOC when they sign up for a certificate and pay about $30 to $150 to verify their identity. These types of credentials, along with digital badges, are mostly posted on learners' LinkedIn profiles and used in job search processes, as a way to highlight specific skills and competencies gained from online classes. Unlike the free certificates that the companies offered in the past, verification ensures the authenticity and value of the credential, Coursera and edX officials say. Coursera and edX have turned away from the concept of free certificates.
