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Harvard U, MIT Release Updated MOOC Report

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January 13, 2017

Researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Thursday released the latest version of an ongoing study to analyze the learners in massive open online courses on edX, which the two institutions founded. The study was first released in 2014. The 2017 version contains information about the 4.5 million learners who have participated in edX MOOCs since 2012. Findings include:

The number of learners choosing to study toward a certificate in edX MOOCs has leveled off since the platform discontinued an option for learners to earn a free certificate of completion.
About one-third (32 percent) of the people who participate in edX MOOCs work or used to work as teachers.
More than half (60 percent) of learners in the average MOOC opt for paid certificate.
The average MOOC learner spends 29 hours with the courseware before earning a certificate.

Carl Straumsheim

Carl Straumsheim, Technology Correspondent, joined Inside Higher Ed in 2013. He got his start in journalism as a video game blogger for Norway's third largest paper, Dagbladet, at age 15, and has since dabbled in media criticism, investigative reporting and political coverage. Straumsheim (pronounced STROMS-hyme) boasts that he once received a perfect score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language, which enabled him to pursue a bachelor's degree in English from LaGrange College and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland at College Park.