Dive Brief:
- Unlike its peers at the top of the MOOC food chain, edX plans to remain committed to traditional institutions, developing pathways to credit for nontraditional students.
- EdSurge reports the massive open online course provider plans to double down on such credit-bearing initiatives, increasing the quality of its courses, the personalization, and the number of proctored learning experiences so partner schools can move toward financial sustainability with their programs.
- Though edX launched with a goal of democratizing education, it has mainly served the elite, but initiatives in development or already announced for the coming years could bring the company back to that goal, opening access to affordable, credit-bearing courses at the world’s top institutions.
Dive Insight:
Coursera and Udacity have both shifted away from traditional institutions, finding greater revenue potential from partnerships with corporations. These MOOC providers are creating courses and mini-degree programs with representatives of companies like Google and AT&T, then offering them to students as direct paths to jobs. Students who complete the courses have all the skills they need to work at the partner companies and have paid for the programs with that in mind. Investors have responded by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the two companies.
The Global Freshman Academy at Arizona State, MIT’s micromasters degree, and the ACE Alternative Credit Project are among edX’s new initiatives.