Dive Brief:
- A University of Arizona professor is taking his astronomy MOOC to Coursera after offering it for two years on Udemy.
- The professor, Chris Impey, is attempting to increase the student completion rates for the class, which he will compare across both platforms, Campus Technology reports.
- The Udemy version of the course is seven weeks long and has registered almost 24,000 students. The Coursera version, which begins next week, is six weeks long, with some added video content, and is expected to draw 11,000 students.
Dive Insight:
Impey is not switching platforms, but is looking at the expansion to Coursera as an experiment. He says he will publish research on what aspects of the course's design are successful in fostering better student engagement and completion rates. His goal is to turn the course into an online class that can be taken for free, and for credit. According to Impey, negotiations to get on the Coursera platform began in 2013.