A Germany-based MOOC provider, iversity.org, went online in October with over 115,000 students on day one, becoming the leading European MOOC platform.
Courses are design to attract a million students by the end of next year, according the company.
The top three courses so far are “The Future of Storytelling,” from the University of Applied Sciences, in Potsdam, Germany (29,000 students); “Design 101 (or Design Basics),” from the Academy of Fine Arts, in Catania, Italy (18,000 students); and “Public Privacy: Cyber Security and Human Rights,” from the Humboldt Viadrina School of Governance, in Berlin (17,000 students). Note that this course was dedicated to a cutting-edge topic that gained world-wide prominence through the revelations of Edward Snowden.
iversity.org’s MOOC curriculum spans a wide range of topics from philosophy to physics, architecture to economics, and politics to engineering. In some of the courses, students will be granted credit points in accordance with the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).
“We are thrilled and a little proud to be going live with such a strong curriculum of fascinating MOOCs. We receive requests from professors and institutions wanting to produce a MOOC on a daily basis. This is a clear sign that universities and professors have recognised the potential for bringing university-level education online,” said Hannes Klöpper, Co-Founder and Managing Director of iversity.
