MOOCs Business Models

2020 ◽  
pp. 1189-1214
Author(s):  
Amir Manzoor

MOOCs have grabbed the headlines and rightfully become the focal point of the disruption under way in higher education. The environment in which MOOCs and other forms of online education operate is changing virtually every day. The viral nature of MOOCs has been apparent through the rapid growth of providers, participating (significant) institutions, faculty members involved in providing courses, students enrolled, and other measures. And MOOCs are starting to exhibit the second trend desired by their startup investors: MOOCs don't seem to be going away. More courses are being added, more faculty members and students are becoming involved. While MOOCs have captured the interest of many, the business models and return on investment are still evolving. The aim of this chapter is to present an analysis of various business models being used by various MOOCs providers along with some future monetization strategies for MOOC providers.

Author(s):  
Amir Manzoor

MOOCs have grabbed the headlines and rightfully become the focal point of the disruption under way in higher education. The environment in which MOOCs and other forms of online education operate is changing virtually every day. The viral nature of MOOCs has been apparent through the rapid growth of providers, participating (significant) institutions, faculty members involved in providing courses, students enrolled, and other measures. And MOOCs are starting to exhibit the second trend desired by their startup investors: MOOCs don't seem to be going away. More courses are being added, more faculty members and students are becoming involved. While MOOCs have captured the interest of many, the business models and return on investment are still evolving. The aim of this chapter is to present an analysis of various business models being used by various MOOCs providers along with some future monetization strategies for MOOC providers.


Author(s):  
Alice G. Yick ◽  
Pam Patrick ◽  
Amanda Costin

<P>The academic culture of higher educational institutions is characterized by specific pedagogical philosophies, assumptions about rewards and incentives, and values about how teaching is delivered. In many academic settings, however, the field of distance education has been viewed as holding marginal status. Consequently, the goal of this qualitative study was to explore faculty members&rsquo; experiences in a distance education, online university while simultaneously navigating within a traditional environment of higher education. A total of 28 faculty members participated in a threaded, asynchronous discussion board that resembled a focus group. Participants discussed perceptions about online teaching, working in an institution without a traditional tenure system, and the role of research in distance education. Findings indicated that online teaching is still regarded as less credible; however, participants also noted how this perception is gradually changing. Several benchmarks of legitimacy were identified for online universities to adopt in order to be viewed as credible. The issue of tenure still remains highly debated, although some faculty felt that tenure will be less crucial in the future. Finally, recommendations regarding attitudinal shifts within academic circles are described with particular attention to professional practice, program development, and policy decision-making in academia.</P> <P><B>Key words:</B> distance education, online education, online faculty experiences, academia, tenure</P>


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Zineb Birrou ◽  
Aziz Kich ◽  
Mohammed Larouz

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted mental and emotional health in significant ways, and has worsened the already existing crisis of rising anxiety, chronic stress and depression among the youth. This was particularly marked by the drastic lockdown measures, the incessant stream of bad news, and the sudden shift to online education. Faced with stressors, resilience is a skill-set that aids with adapting, coping, and bouncing back from adversity while maintaining or quickly returning to a relatively healthy psychological functioning. This article therefore aims to explore the past, present and future situation regarding emotional and mental resilience skills in Moroccan higher education curricula. To this end, structured and semi-structured interviews have been conducted with four senior officials at the Ministry of Education in Rabat, Morocco. Furthermore, surveys have been collected from faculty members in eight public universities. The findings reveal that resilience education has not been officially implemented yet in Moroccan universities. However, the national vision shows the rising awareness in the need to shift to a more holistic educational paradigm, especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, to better prepare students for the uncertain and fast-changing future.  


Author(s):  
Yi Yang ◽  
Curtis J. Bonk

Roles of administrators are often overlooked when discussing the quality of online education. Administrators have long asserted the pivotal influence on school policies, faculty members’ morale, and learning atmosphere. This chapter examines the challenges administrators face in ensuring the quality and viability of online programs. In the chapter, we suggest that the responsibilities of an effective higher education administrator encompass roles as strategic planner and manager, effective motivator, aggressive promoter, and strong supporter of others. We also put forth recommendations for administrators that might help them improve the quality and success of online programs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Osman Ferda Beytekin

The purpose of this qualitative study was to get a better understanding of faculty members&#39; views on the future of higher education by their first-time online teaching experiences during the Fall 2021 academic semester, which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the outbreak&#39;s rapid and widespread dissemination, it created a unique phenomenon that had a significant impact on faculty members who had no prior experience teaching courses entirely online. In order to conduct this qualitative research, purposive sampling was used to choose ten faculty members from a variety of disciplines who had at least ten years of experience teaching in a traditional classroom setting at a public university in Izmir, Turkey. Faculty members were asked about the future of higher education in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from that, each faculty member was asked to discuss how the mandatory shift to online education altered their teaching style and how institutional help impacted their experiences throughout the pandemic. As a consequence of their observations and statements of their perspectives on events they witnessed and personally experienced, the key issue of &quot;transformation of higher education with hybrid perspective&quot; developed as a central theme. The data analysis revealed the following subthemes: &quot;educators on the internet,&quot; &quot;sustain and evolve,&quot; and &quot;university support&quot;. These findings may be applied in a variety of contexts, including educational leadership and the design of hybrid and online courses, among other applications in higher education.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwin Britto ◽  
Cristi Ford ◽  
Jean-Marc Wise

The rapid growth of online academic programs in higher education has prompted institutions to develop processes and implement strategies to ensure the quality of their online offerings. Although there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach, there are “quality” standards which institutions can effectively implement regardless of context. This paper examines approaches from three different types of institutions in addressing quality assurance in online education on their respective campuses. Specifically, this paper presents three case studies and describes each institution’s 1) background and overview, 2) quality definition, 3) approach to quality assurance, 4) models and approaches, 5) goals, 6) successes, 7) challenges, and 8) lessons learned. A comparison reveals that despite differences in scope, size, location, mission and extent of online development, there is consistency in the institutions’ strategies to addressing quality assurance in online learning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih ◽  
Ahmed M. Hasanein ◽  
Ahmed E. Abu Elnasr

The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has forced higher education institutions to shift from face-to-face to online education. However, many public institutions, especially in developing countries, often do not have access to formal online learning management systems (LMS) for facilitating communication with students and/or among faculty members. This research empirically examines the extent to which social media sites are adopted by faculty members and students for sustaining formal, i.e., sole and official tools, academic communication. For this purpose, online questionnaire surveys, supplemented with in-depth interviews, were undertaken with both faculty members and students. The results showed that students’ personal usage of social media has promoted its effective usage for sustaining formal teaching and learning. However, significant differences were found between faculty members and students regarding social media usage for student support and building an online community. Students used social media for building an online community and supporting each other, whereas faculty members were focused on teaching and learning exclusively. The results confirm that proper usage of social media could promote a new era of social learning, social presence and an alternative platform to foster online learning. Research implications for higher education policymakers, especially in developing countries, and scholars are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamish Coates ◽  
Paula Kelly ◽  
Ryan Naylor

Online education has grown exponentially over the last few decades, churning through a swarm of acronyms, ambiguities and potentialities. Substantial energy has been invested in producing technology, building academic capability, and understanding learners and markets. Though it feels pervasive, online education is comparatively new in the scheme of higher education, and key education and business models remain in formation. To spur advance, this paper argues that as online education matures increasing energy must shift from supplier-centric concerns about provision to instead ensuring learner value and success. We argue that online education presents new opportunities not just for the mechanics of higher education, but for improving each student’s experience and outcomes. Central to such advance is a clear picture of student success, cogent perspectives for understanding students, effective strategies for analysing and interpreting huge volumes of data, and more evidence-based academic leadership. The paper investigates each of these areas, provoking an agenda to guide further student and institutional achievement.


Author(s):  
Deb Gearhart

At a time when higher education is struggling to provide educational services to students on traditional campuses, many institutions are experiencing growth in the online degree programs that they provide. This case study looks at one institution’s effort to deal with rapid growth in online education while maintaining academic integrity and quality in program delivery; managing program growth through the development and use of policy and procedures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Inan Deniz Erguvan

AbstractContract cheating has gone rampant in higher education recently. When institutions switched to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of contract cheating students climbed to unprecedented levels. Essay mills saw the lack of face-to-face interaction and proctoring on campus as an opportunity and used aggressive marketing methods to attract students. This study asked the opinions of 20 faculty members working in the English departments of private higher education institutions in Kuwait regarding contract cheating through interviews. The data was analyzed with MAXQDA 2020. The findings show that all faculty members can recognize contract cheating easily. Most of them see contract cheating as a serious problem in the higher education system, a threat to the reliability of language assessment, triggered by laziness, the social pressure to graduate with a high GPA, and exacerbated by the cheating opportunities in online education. Academics have developed certain individual strategies in their courses to curb the number of contract cheating students; however, institutional measures differ, and in some, there are no measures or sanctions on contract cheating students.


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