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To understand MOOCs, it is essential to understand how they differ from other educational provision. MOOCs differ from ‘regular’ online courses in at least three aspects:
- MOOCs are designed for (potentially) unlimited participants and as such offer the potential to scale up education at marginal cost;
- MOOCs are typically, to some extent open and accessible for free and without prior entry qualifications;
- All elements of course provision are provided fully online in a MOOC (though some have included other elements).
Per their definition as ‘open’, MOOCs are usually free to access and study. However, there are monetary costs associated with them and MOOC providers are constantly searching for sustainable business models. Examples include: free participation, with fee-based certification; tutoring; individual coaching; tailoring courses to specific target groups; providing follow-up resources; or other services.
Until recently most universities wouldn’t consider recognising MOOCs as formal learning, but certified MOOC learning is sometimes recognised as prior learning – this will depend on the institutions involved.
The issue around identity and credit is of highest importance. Once a student completes a MOOC, the University needs to ensure that he or she has really learned something and earned the credit. One possible solution is for institutions and MOOC entities to develop working partnerships with testing centres and verification technology companies. Recently, MOOC providers have offered the possibility of acquiring formal credit for MOOC completion, and in some cases they are already accepted as part of a formal (Bachelor or Master) program. The credibility of MOOC content and completion is less contentious when the MOOC is produced by the HEI. In this case the recognition of credits can be automatic. Some universities partner with MOOC platforms instead of producing own MOOCs and still recognise the credits.
HEIs are primarily interested in MOOC for the following reasons:
- Financial benefit. Production of MOOCs can affect HEI’s economics by lowering costs (same course for numerous students can save teaching hours) or increasing revenues, generating additional income (from learners outside of HEI). A proper integration of MOOCs in higher education can contribute to a more effective use of teaching time. Conversely, they can also offer a flexible learning to traditional students and lifelong learners. Reuse of MOOCs provided by other institutions contributes to cost-efficiency of the educational offer. This needs to be supported by appropriate adaptation and repurposing in line with the concrete necessities and priorities of educational goals and programs. Furthermore, it is potentially possible to translate free access MOOC students into paying students, or to reach international students (Zhenghao et al., 2015).
- Reputation, image and visibility. Some MOOCs produced by HEIs are addressed to prospective students, which can affect student recruitment. MOOCs hold a significant marketing potential, extending the reach of the institution and access to education, building and maintaining the institution brand. For example MOOCs can be addressed to learners from developing countries or students with no access to education or those who cannot afford it (Dillahunt et al., 2015). Providing access to open MOOC platforms increases the visibility and positive image of HEIs. Enhanced image will also affect employer branding in the long-term.
- Innovation. MOOCs produced for HEIs community can improve quality, diversity and attractiveness of on campus offering. Engaging with MOOCs can foster creativity and innovation at HEIs. The MOOC production process involves innovation in teaching and learning in terms of course content and forms of acquiring new knowledge, which can significantly contribute to improving educational outcomes for MOOC participants and on-campus students, improving overall teaching quality, and supporting the transition to more flexible and online education.
- Contribution to society. HEIs engage in MOOCs for reasons relating to their core mission. MOOCs enable access to quality education to as many as people possible and contribute to continuous education of various social groups. MOOcs can be addressed to unemployed helping them to develop certain skills needed for employability. They can also contribute to the free training of employees. MOOCs can serve as great platform to enhance the knowledge circulation in the society, including disseminating new research results (Hanley, 2014).
- Supporting traditional delivery. This is usually the first step for HEIs to engage in MOOCs. It takes time for faculty to adapt to the possibilities of MOOCs. It will take a significant investment in “humanware” (http://mynkuhelp.nku.edu/content/dam/StrategicPlanning/docs/OnlineEducationandInnovation/AGBreport_2013_MOOCs.pdf) to transform the way teaching is delivered— either on campus, totally online, or somewhere in between (blended). The transition to a new platform or delivery system requires support (e.g. from course designers, multimedia specialists, etc.) (Azevedo, 2012). Whether that effort is managed centrally by a senior administrative leader or distributed across the existing administration—and how it is facilitated—are matters of institutional culture.
- Specialization within education: HEIs typically provide services that include teaching, assessment, accreditation and student facilities as a package to all learners, whether they require them or not. MOOCs could contribute for unbundling the process of education, which means that different parts of this process could be outsourced to specialised institutions and/or be provided in collaboration by several providers. Thus the MOOCs from several providers could be used as a resource for traditional University courses. MOOCs are seen as an accelerator of these unbundling processes by outsourcing or splitting among partners the marketing efforts, ICT/delivery platform, exams, learning analytics services (Robertson and Komljenovic, 2016).
Production
Production and development for MOOCs vary between courses and between countries. The amount of money invested is typically dependent on factors such as:
- staff costs – number of faculty, administrative and instructional support personnel taking part in the process
- length of the MOOC (e.g. 4 or 12 weeks);
- hours of video material produced and quality of videography
- programming for special features (computer code auto-graders, simulations, gamification, virtual labs and others)
- production of further cost-intensive resources, such as graphs, animations, overlays etc.
- copyright permissions
- type of delivery platforms
- post-production services and technical support for participants
Naturally, the production of MOOCs by HEIs is highly dependent upon the existing knowledge, experience, equipment and content available prior to course production, etc.
For each presentation of a course on a MOOC platform, operational costs for teachers, assistants, facilitators and mentors are incurred. Additional costs are needed for the MOOC platform, a fee (annual or per MOOC) for a partnership with a MOOC provider, marketing, etc.
The production and launching of MOOCs is definitely an extra expense for most organisations. The costs connected with the MOOCs development and implementation can be reduced by:
- involving the target audience in either the development (young people learning to code) and/or the operation of the MOOC (peer-to-peer assessment, p2p tutoring, etc.)
- providing the MOOC on your own institutional platform and not outsourcing it to one of the MOOC platforms.
- using open source software for MOOC platforms or use freely available (social media) tools on the internet in network MOOCs
- cost efficient video recording tools
- using of existing material and OER or even re-use complete MOOCs from other institutions
- a low cost partnership for those services that are scalable and best organised cross-institutionally.
In spite of unavoidable and necessary costs, MOOCs carry several potential opportunities for increasing income. These might include:
- Raising institutional visibility
- Building a stronger brand
- Improved pedagogy (large samples of data contribute to increasing teaching and learning effectiveness)
- Increasing student enrolment
- Reaching new students in conditions of continuously changing student demographics
- New projects and partnerships due to enhanced exposure
Direct revenue streams can be generated only through additional services or products sold on-line as complementation or expansion of the core MOOC. Additionally, it should be considered (in terms of financing the extra expenses of MOOCs) the uneven status and resource availability in each country/region and type of HEI. In Europe, the provision of higher education is funded and partly controlled by national governments. The continental European approach to higher education is typically state-funded in which most institutions have equal resources and status while the more market-based U.S. model has mixed private-public funding and provision with large difference between HEIs.
Overall, MOOCs do not yet have a proven sustainable economic model, and this is a crucial point. MOOC production costs are high if the quality is to be competitive, and their benefits or potential returns are indirect and often long term. However, improved image and visibility, a stronger brand, higher student enrolment thanks to a positive opinion gained through MOOCs and new collaboration avenues are (indirect) long-term benefits which are absolutely key in today’s global competitive educational services environment.