MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – detach studies from space and time. The courses, often designed by well-known universities, run online and can therefore be completed on the couch at home or on the other side of the world. Participation not only brings with it in-depth knowledge, but is also a real plus on your CV. An overview of the currently largest MOOC providers.
Coursera was founded in 2012 by two Stanford University computer science professors and has been growing rapidly ever since. Currently around 1,600 online courses (mostly in English) are offered by 140 partners from 28 countries (as of January 2016); At the end of 2015, Coursera had over 15 million registered users. The 62 partner universities also include well-known ones such as Princeton, Yale and John Hopkins.
The courses are free and cover many different disciplines - from computer science to social sciences, from mathematics to art. You learn via script and video lectures, and you are tested using multiple-choice tests or entering essays. There is also a forum for exchanging ideas with other course participants. At the end you get a certificate for your CV. For some of the courses it is also possible to collect credits for a fee.
edX is the result of a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. The platform currently has around seven million users who can choose from around 700 online courses in a wide range of disciplines (as of 03/2106). Knowledge is imparted through videos, online discussions and online laboratories. In addition, edX is also used to advance research in e-learning: How do students learn and how can learning strategies be influenced by technology? There are free and paid options for obtaining certificates. Separate programs are also offered, including “MicroMasters,” which is specifically aimed at university graduates.
The private online academy Udacity is based on an experiment at Stanford University in which Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig offered their course “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” online and free of charge to everyone in 2011. Over 160,000 people in more than 190 countries enrolled in this course - shortly afterwards Udacity was founded. Today around 2.8 million participants are registered (as of September 2014). The courses primarily revolve around computer science and programming, but physics, mathematics, business administration and psychology are also topics. In addition to the classic online courses, for which you can download a certificate at the end, so-called Nanodegree programs are offered: In collaboration with companies such as Google, Facebook or Mercedes-Benz, you can become a VR developer, data analyst or (for a fee). Get trained as a self-driving car engineer.
The iversity platform offers interactive courses for higher education and further education, primarily in German and English. It cooperates with 41 universities and has around 600,000 users (as of February 2015). The courses end with a final project or exam and the award of a certificate (some of which are subject to a fee). Participating universities can also award ECTS points so that students can have credits earned online credited towards their on-site studies.
On openHPI , the Internet education platform of the Potsdam Hasso Plattner Institute, you can take free online courses on various information technology (IT) topics - including cloud computing or the development of databases. Knowledge is conveyed via learning videos, interactive self-tests, tutorials and practical exercises.
In contrast to other MOOC providers, Udemy does not cooperate in the traditional way with universities, but rather offers lecturers the opportunity to publish courses on a wide variety of topics. You can learn to program with Python here, but you can also explore the question of how important body language is for professional success. There are currently more than 40,000 courses and over twelve million participants (as of June 2016). Some of the courses are free, some are chargeable. You can start at any time. There are no certificates.
In addition to the MOOCs explained so far, there are other online offers, which, however, can no longer be clearly assigned to the category of MOOCs:
The Khan Academy platform offers more than 5,000 free online courses (as of 2015) on topics such as mathematics, science, programming, history, art and economics. There are more than 100,000 interactive exercises available, the difficulty levels of which adapt to the student. There are no specific dates or deadlines - so you can learn anywhere and at any time.
Which platforms for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are there and what can you learn there?
