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More MOOC Madness? UK’s FutureLearn Raises $65M to Expand Global Footprint

Edsurge

Less than a week after its announced lead in Coursera’s $103 million Series E round , SEEK is at it again with £50 million (about $65 million) in London-based MOOC platform FutureLearn. This funding is “vindication for Open University betting on a MOOC platform, for investing in a non-U.S. audiences).

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Harvard and MIT Launch Nonprofit to Increase College Access

Edsurge

An Unusual Backstory When MIT and Harvard each invested $30 million to start edX back in 2012, it was surprising news. The founding came at the height of public excitement around free online courses known as MOOCs, which stands for Massive Open Online Courses. In fact, a New York Times piece declared 2012 “ the year of the MOOC.”

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Much Ado About MOOCs: Where Are We in the Evolution of Online Courses?

Edsurge

A lot has changed since 2012 or, the year the New York Times dubbed the "Year of the MOOC." Today, many MOOC providers now charge a fee. And popular providers like Coursera and edX are increasingly partnering with colleges and universities to offer MOOC-based degrees online. And how are universities responding?

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Elite Colleges Started EdX as a Nonprofit Alternative to Coursera. How Is It Doing?

Edsurge

It was 2012, and online learning was suddenly booming. It has the most users of any provider of MOOCs (as the large-scale online courses are sometimes called), claiming more than 77 million learners. Dhawal Shaw, founder of MOOC-discovery platform Class Central. Downsides of Openness?

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Moving From 5% to 85% Completion Rates for Online Courses

Edsurge

MOOCs, shorthand for massive open online courses, have been widely critiqued for their miniscule completion rates. This does not necessarily make MOOCs a failure. That’s a far cry from five years ago, when only 5 percent of the students were finishing the MOOCs I was designing. Use the power of peer pressure.

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The Winners and Filmstrips of An (Almost) Decade in Education Technology

Edsurge

So with these guidelines in mind, I’ve chosen six areas where edtech has made an impact this decade: Learning Management Systems. Learning analytics. Digital badges. Adaptive learning systems. Three types of edtech joined the “filmstrip” category in this decade: Learning Management Systems , MOOC s, and digital badges.

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The Digital Revolution Is Saving Higher Ed

Edsurge

His prophecy was based on the notion that digital alternatives to face-to-face education—in his view, much cheaper and friendlier than conventional instruction—would convince millions of college students to turn their backs on stodgy, old campuses to earn degrees in internet alternatives instead. million from fall 2012 to fall 2020.

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