EUA has published its second Occasional Paper on the topic of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).
Authored by Michael Gaebel, Director of the Higher Education Policy Unit at EUA, it also looks in detail at a number of issues related to the development of MOOCs that are directly relevant for universities.
The full paper can be downloaded here.
Observations on MOOC developments - Financial aspects
A major issue is of course the financial implications of MOOCs. Right from the start, there have been discussions on whether they have a high or low cost, and how there might be a return of investment.
While the business models seem to be still under development, there is a bit more evidence of what a MOOC may cost. Download the full paper here.

EUA has published its second Occasional Paper on the topic of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Authored by Michael Gaebel, Director of the Higher Education Policy Unit at EUA, it also looks in detail at a number of issues related to the development of MOOCs that are directly relevant for universities. The full paper can be downloaded here.
MOOCs in other parts of the world
Universities in some other parts of the world did not only join the international platforms, but can also rely on an increasing number of offers from national and regional initiatives.
In July 2013, the Chronicle reported on Schoo in Japan, the Japanese version of Coursera. Schoo is said to target Japanese young professionals with around 130 courses and a total attendance of 40,000 users. The company, which gathered US$1.5 million venture-capital, hopes to have more than a million students by the end of 2013 (Chronicle of Higher Education 05/07/2013).
China has a longstanding tradition of distance learning. The Open University of China, formerly the Radio and Television University, has an extended network of regional and local branches all over the country, providing courses, with tutorials and exams. National exams could be taken with or without course attendance.
MOOCs have been received with some curiosity as a new educational resource for both Chinese higher education institutions and the wider society, and in many respects it resembles the discussions that take place elsewhere. Students seem to have been among the first to embrace the new trend: some of the fancy international courses that have achieved high popularity in China are quoted and referred to on many different websites, and are subject to vivid discussions among students (such as the Harvard courses on Justice). Overall, participation in international MOOCs seems to be highly reputational, and it is expected that students will soon start to include their participation in MOOCs of famous universities in their CVs.
University professors seem to react with a sort of “no choice, have to participate in MOOCs” attitude, and also in anticipation of pedagogical reforms towards student-centred learning, enabled through “blended learning”. Widening access to education obviously is an important issue for China. There is some reflection on how MOOCs could enhance learning and teaching at developing universities in Western China, but also on Chinese courses that could meet the interest of learners around the world.
Leading Chinese universities have obviously decided that they cannot afford to stay away. The Shanghai Jiaotong University – initiator of the Shanghai ranking – has established a forum on MOOCs in China;50 Peking, Tsinghua, Fudan, and Shanghai Jiaotong joined edX in June and July 2013. So far, Peking has four courses on edX, and is currently launching another six courses on Coursera. According to local newspaper reports in September 2013, students enrolled at Peking University can now earn credits from the university’s own MOOCs.51 Tsinghua, after an intensive pilot phase, launched in October 2013 its own platform XuetangX,52 offering its own courses and courses from edX.
Chinese MOOCs and open courses can be found at several portals. glr.cn (www.topu.com) offers a wide range of open courses, some of them also not academic. Sohu,54 another portal for open learning offers an array of open courses provided by Chinese universities, as well as several Chinese TV and online media agencies. It also refers to courses from prestigious international universities (such as Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton).
Netease (http://open.163.com) is yet another portal with a wider range of courses from universities and education-related agencies. The international courses are clearly dominated by US institutions, but there is also the UK Open University, Nottingham, and HEC Paris with seven courses on business and management. Most courses have Chinese subtitles. The website enables access by personal computer and mobile phones. The offer also includes the Chinese website of the Khan Academy, in English with Chinese subtitles (http://open.163.com/khan/).
In February 2013, the Ministry of Education of Taiwan launched a “MOOCs” project aiming at including 15 universities with 100 courses.
In India the Academic Financial Trading Platform (www.academictrader.org), founded by Carnegie Mellon University professors, launched online business education courses in 2012 specifically for Indian MBA students and executives.56 Under the slogan “Education is a right, not a privilege”, Educateme360.com, a New York-based Indian start-up, offers customised online learning to Indian students. Their courses, currently still in the pilot stage, aim at fighting illiteracy and developing blended learning. They will be made available in various Indian languages. EduKart, which promotes itself as “India’s leading online education company” offers degree courses recognised by the Indian University Grant Commission (UGC) and also professional certificates. Most courses are provided by Indian higher education institutions, some by international higher education institutions. EduKart emphasises that it tailors its offer to industry needs: it provides corporate courses; supports job matching; and rates its graduates on an “EduKart Rating of Employability”.
In Africa, Africamooc (http://aelsnet.net/mooc-what-is-that/) hosted by AeLSNet (Africa eLearning Service Network) is a repository of eLearning courses and materials. The motto of its founder is: “If your online course is available for free, we will host it for free on the AeLSNet ePortal Africa.” It provides a long list of MOOC providers, and gives an overview on current and soon to start MOOCs – most of them from the big international platforms. But so far, it lists no African MOOC providers or no African MOOCs.
African Management Initiative (AMI; www.africanmanagers.org/free-online-learning-ami-developafricas- first-mooc) has been established by the Association of African Business Schools, together with the Global Business School Network and several foundations. Its website presents it as “The first Massively Open Online Course designed by Africans for Africans”: It provides a free online platform offering management courses and practical business education.
There has been talk about the World Bank funding a Coursera MOOC to provide market-relevant IT skills in Tanzania, but apart from a mention on the World Bank blog, there seems to be no further information on this initiative.
For the Arab world, the Edraak Platform, established by edX and the Jordanian Queen Rania Foundation, will offer edX courses translated into Arabic against a license fee, and also plans to “develop its own courses in Arabic taught by leading Arab faculty members and well-known professionals in a variety of fields.”
In Brazil, Veduca (www.veduca.com.br/home/index) was the first MOOC provider in Latin America, and it curates publicly available educational videos from universities like the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard and Columbia Universities, adding subtitles in Portuguese. The company also offered the first Latin America-based MOOC from the University of São Paulo (Chronicle of Higher Education, 05/07/2013).
In Australia Open2Study (www.open2study.com/) has partnerships with eight Australian universities and offers courses on topics such as nutrition, anthropology, and business (Chronicle of Higher Education, 05/07/2013). The University of Melbourne was the first Australian university to sign up to Coursera in 2012. Monash University has joined FutureLearn, but does not intend to offer credits at this stage. The University of New England launched its own free online initiative in which it offers students the option of earning credits by taking a fee-paying exam. Deakin University and La Trobe University launched free MOOCs, with the option to award credit at a fee of US$495 or US$816 respectively. Deakin sees this as an experiment in online learning and new ways of assessment, which also includes “badges” awarded by peers. Download the full paper here.

EUA has published its second Occasional Paper on the topic of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Authored by Michael Gaebel, Director of the Higher Education Policy Unit at EUA, it also looks in detail at a number of issues related to the development of MOOCs that are directly relevant for universities. The full paper can be downloaded here.
Motives for MOOCs in Europe
It is interesting to see the diverse responses to MOOCs that European national higher education systems and different types of institutions with different missions develop. Many European institutions develop MOOCs as a complementary strategic approach for international competition. This seems to be the case for example in the Netherlands and in the UK, where institutional leadership devotes considerable attention to MOOCs.
The UK’s FutureLearn initiative and France’s Université Numérique (FUN) have been presented as initiatives to ensure global visibility and competitiveness against the transatlantic developments, and to explore possibilities for international visibility and attractiveness. In the case of the French and the Spanish platforms, language is of course an additional aspect. But interestingly, they also provide some courses in English.
There is also the expectation that MOOCs could contribute to improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of higher education, and as a means of broadening and innovating learning. This seems to be the case in Spain, which has currently the highest number of MOOCs, delivered both by the open universities and regular universities. At several occasions, Spanish university leadership and staff expressed their conviction that MOOCs could be a means to revolutionise the present learning and teaching practices, and hence bring the change that the Bologna Process and national reforms failed to achieve. In Italy, the Ministry for Education, Universities and Research established a Committee in June 2013 to develop proposals to improve the quality of e-learning in the country, and in view of the eleven Telematic Universities. In France, FUN is one element of an ambitious e-learning strategy, involving all education sectors. In the UK, a report by the Department for Business, Education and Skills in collaboration with the Centre for Distance Education (CDE) and the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, concludes after an extensive literature review that MOOCs will in the long term contribute to significant changes in the higher education sector.
One of the promises is also that MOOCs would allow a better articulation between higher education and the labour market, and contribute to providing professional education opportunities for learners outside of universities. This seems to be a motive in many countries, certainly also those in crisis, like in Spain. Germany’s first MOOCs had been developed for professional education, though not free of charge, and university involvement in them has been marginal.
But there seems to be some scepticism towards MOOCs and the idea that they would play a major role as a transformer, innovator and game changer – beyond the novel approaches that would emerge anyway from other types of digital and online education. This seems to be particularly the case in countries that have already established a broad offer of e- and online higher education. For example in Germany, some higher education institutions have a longstanding experience in blended learning, and rather than focus on MOOCs, the current debate seems to centre on how e- and online learning can enhance higher education.
This may also be one of the reasons why so far there are only a few MOOCs in northern Europe. Many of the northern European universities have a longstanding practice in e- and online learning offers, and it may not be evident why they should now develop MOOCs. This is supported by the fact that there is a vivid discussion in the university communities of northern European countries: In Finland, for example, all universities have incorporated open universities, which may explain why the interest in MOOCs and international MOOCs providers seems to be limited, and discussions focus more on the development of new Finnish platforms for course delivery. MOOCs are certainly also considered by national authorities. For example, a Norwegian official expert committee issued a report on 18/12/2013, recommending increased public funding for MOOCs and other e-learning measures, including e-literacy of staff, and its use in formal and informal education.
The European Commission (EC) is obviously interested in MOOCs, for various reasons. As MOOCs attracted the attention of higher education leadership, this could help to underpin the EC’s “Opening up Education Communication” (September 2013). Besides bringing European education into the digital age, it also sees great prospects for IT skills development (shortage of programmers etc.). It conceded that it would support the development of courses through the Erasmus+ Programme, given also that many institutions would not yet have the capabilities to provide MOOCs. It also emphasised an interest in keeping courses open, which may have to be seen in relation to its ongoing efforts to establish open access on research results, and would – if turned into European policy – contribute to shaping the European higher education landscape.  Given the interest in modernising European higher education, it also perceives MOOCs as an opportunity for transformation and increased collaboration with business. Commissioner Vassiliou spoke on the occasion of the launch of the abovementioned OpenupEd portal of the European open universities, and on a number of occasions; other EC officials have addressed and also facilitated discussion on the issue, e.g. at the 2013 University-Business Forum. It will be interesting to follow developments in the next months, on whether and how a European dimension of MOOCs would be developed. In this regard, the EC has launched a tender to map MOOCs developments and to establish a European MOOCs platform, or to advise how to build on already existing network platforms. Another tender on innovation in teaching and learning mentions MOOCs quite prominently as one of the strategies to be studied.
The idea to establish a central European platform is still occasionally referred to, but it is unlikely to materialise. Europe is diverse, and its strength lies probably in decentralised approaches that compete and also cooperate. It would be more important that platforms that have been established in Europe so far, and others which may still emerge, would — in addition to their language preference — develop a clear profile that makes them attractive to both European and international institutions.
It is likely that European MOOCs will be of growing interest internationally. Some European MOOCs initiatives are (also) considering international audiences: e.g. FutureLearn has been presented by Prime Minister Cameron during his visit to India this year; some francophone MOOCs from different European countries target African learners; and Spanish initiatives reach out to Latin America. European universities are obviously of interest to the big international platforms, whose representatives travelled many miles over the past months to promote their initiatives and patiently answered questions from European stakeholders. A workshop entitled “Making Sense of Euro MOOCs” organised by Madison University in June 2013 did not only try to analyse the European situation, but also used the occasion to discuss the issues that US universities are confronting. Despite the different ecosystems, there are many parallels to be drawn. The global higher education community has found yet another topic for discussion, and hopefully for cooperation. Download the full paper here.

EUA has published its second Occasional Paper on the topic of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Authored by Michael Gaebel, Director of the Higher Education Policy Unit at EUA, it also looks in detail at a number of issues related to the development of MOOCs that are directly relevant for universities. The full paper can be downloaded here.
Introduction
In Spain in January 2013 Miriada X (www.miriadax.net/) was launched — a cooperation between the Spanish company Telefonica and Universia.22 Miriada X is designed to facilitate exchanges and cooperation between Spanish and Latin American institutions. So far, 20 institutions have joined, 17 of them from Spain and three from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It offers courses for free.23 Generally, there seems to be a strong interest in MOOCs in Spain. The Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), in the meanwhile, has a significant share in the close to 100 Spanish MOOCs.
Portugal has only had two MOOCs so far, but with interesting conceptual approaches: one has been developed in cooperation with Brazilian partners. The Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University, www.uab.pt/web/guest/home) launched a project called iMOOC (http://imooc.uab.pt/; “i” for individual responsibility, interaction, interpersonal relationships, innovation and inclusion) to develop a pedagogy for MOOCs that is in line with its educational principals: “autonomous and selfdirected learning with a strong social dimension and the flexibility that distance online learners need with the pacing necessary to help them get things done.” At the beginning it provides a “bootcamp” on e-learning for all learners. One of the first courses delivered via the OpenupEd platform is on “Climate change – The Context of Life Experiences”.
Announced at the end of 2012 as a British platform, and led by the Open University, FutureLearn (www.futurelearn.com/) was launched in the UK in September 2013. Meanwhile, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Monash University, Australia, have joined the platform. The website description has been changed accordingly (“top UK and international universities”). The platform now comprises 26 partners in total, including the British Library, the British Museum and the British Council. The course offer has not yet been announced, but according to the website, learners from 150 countries have expressed their interest by signing up. FutureLearn promises that courses will be free of charge, and would be adapted to mobile devices such as smart phones. There has been a very contentious discussion on the envisaged licensing policy of FutureLearn.
In Ireland, probably with the sole exception of Trinity College that recently joined FutureLearn, only non-university higher education institutions have taken up MOOCs. The Institute of Technology Sligo, a recognised public education institution, which has been offering distance learning since 1989 and online learning since 2002, conducted a MOOC, which will be repeated in 2014.
Alison is a social enterprise distance learning provider established in 2007. According to its website, it provides around 600 courses to 2.5 million learners worldwide. Course participation is free, but Alison charges for service and support, and for courses for companies. It is based in Ireland and it notes that its courses also adhere to British Council and Australian High School standards.
In June 2013, in France, the telecommunication company Orange announced that it would launch a platform for France in the fourth quarter of 2013, which has apparently not materialised. But in the meanwhile, the French Government has launched France Université Numérique (FUN), the first French MOOC portal, using edX’s open source learning platform. FUN has been launched with 20 MOOCs to start in January 2014. The MOOC platform is one of the 18 action points of a five-year strategic plan for the digitalisation of learning and teaching. While announced as the national platform with participation restricted to French institutions for the moment, it has been mentioned that it might open up in the future to courses from universities outside of France.
In Finland, former Nokia developers established “Eliademy” and announced they would develop a MOOC platform. But for the moment, it seems only to provide a mobile-phone-compatible virtual classroom concept. There is a free version for individuals, and companies have to buy licenses.
In Austria Udacity courses are used by at least one institution as an alternative to the regular study programme.
Meanwhile, two Austrian institutions have joined forces for a MOOC platform.
Germany seems to have developed MOOCs early on, albeit without calling them by that name:
- openHPI (https://openhpi.de) was developed by the Hasso Plattner Institute and began on 03/09/2012 with the online course In-Memory Data Management33 (English) taught by Prof. Hasso Plattner, founder of HPI, co-founder of the software giant SAP. According to the website, there were 13,126 participating learners, of whom 2 137 earned the graded certificate, i.e. they achieved more than 50% of the maximum number of points. Courses launched later had a lower participation rate (the latest course 7 350 learners). Courses are offered in English and German.
- opencourseworld (www.opencourseworld.de/pages/landingpage.jsf; OCW) was established by IMC AG, a spin-off company established by the University of Saarland that offers IT and service solutions. IMC collaborates currently with 20 partners (higher education institutions, research institutions and companies), among them three German universities (University of Saarland, University of Hamburg, and Technical University Munich), the DFG Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Frauenhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering, as well as Scheer Management/Consultance and Microsoft. Former BITKOM President August-Wilhelm Scheer is the founder of the Scheer Group, IMC AG and OCW.
- Iversity (https://iversity.org/), launched in 2011/2012 as an international think-tank, has the goal to push education into the digital age. It is based in Germany and collaborates with the German Government and private national foundations, which contribute to its funding. In partnership with the German education think-tank Stifterverband (www.stifterverband.info), iversity has launched a call for MOOCs under the title of MOOC Production Fellowship, which received more than 100 submissions, most of them from Germany. In autumn 2013, it awarded 10 institutions with €25,000 each, and started its MOOC platform. The courses offered are in German and English, and iversity also announced that two higher education institutions from its platform will awards ECTS credits for MOOCs.
In 2012, the European open universities were relatively silent about the developments, apart from the Open University UK, which announced its involvement in Futurelearn. This changed with the launch of the OpenupEd portal of the EADTU in April 2013 that posts courses that were developed earlier but are now offered for free. European cooperation on the issue is envisaged in the future. According to the press release it is “the first MOOCs initiative which goes Europe-wide, with the support of the European Commission”. By now, 65 courses covering a wide variety of subjects are available in 12 different languages. The 11 launch partners are based in France, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and the UK, and outside the EU in Russia, Turkey and Israel. Many, but not all European open universities have joined. A reason for not joining could be a certain reservation towards the MOOCs approach, as it would not include the necessary measures for student support. The German Fernuniversität Hagen, not a member of OpenupEd, has recently launched a MOOC with restricted participation (for students enrolled at the institution), followed by one open for everybody. Initially, participation in the OpenupEd portal seemed to be open only to EADTU members and the open universities. However, in October 2013, EADTU announced that, for a moderate fee, which still is to be decided, the portal would be open to courses provided by conventional universities, provided that they fulfil the quality standards that EADTU has laid down in its e-excellence label.
There are some examples of individual higher education institutions launching their MOOCs independently, without any connection to one of the big platforms. The Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany offered a MOOC “ThinkTank – Ideal City of the 21st Century”. The course, with no prerequisites, was taught by the famous architect Daniel Libeskind and ended in April 2013. While the courses have not been relaunched, it has resulted in the establishment of the Leuphana Digital School. EPFL, while offering courses on Coursera, also has some courses not related to any platform, to diversify, and also to address a different target group. There are probably many more examples of universities that offer their own MOOCs – including some that have done this for quite some time, without calling them MOOCs.
On the other hand, some universities are careful to draw a line between the education they offer and MOOCs. The University of Cambridge has been quoted as saying that it had no plans to offer MOOCs.
So far there is not much information about MOOCs developments in eastern Europe, with the exception of Kaunas University in Lithuania, and one initiative in Slovenia. Download the full paper here.

EUA has published its second Occasional Paper on the topic of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Authored by Michael Gaebel, Director of the Higher Education Policy Unit at EUA, it also looks in detail at a number of issues related to the development of MOOCs that are directly relevant for universities. The full paper can be downloaded here.
Mapping European MOOCs
Concluding from reports on ongoing and planned initiatives from 13 countries at the first European MOOCs Stakeholder Summit, 06-07/06/2013, organised and hosted by the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, there must have been at least 100 institutions offering (or planning to offer by the end of the year 2013) 200-250 courses; to this number, one would have to add 61 courses provided by the European open universities at the OpenupEd Portal. A forthcoming EUA survey on e-learning showed that of 249 responding European higher education institutions, 31 have MOOCs, but an additional 115 state that they consider introducing them. 75% of the institutions confirmed that they either had adopted a position towards MOOCs, or were planning to do so.
In September 2013, the recently launched Open Education Europa website of the European Commission comes to a similar number. But by end October, it already has 345 courses. The steep increase is probably due to a real increase in MOOCs (in particular through the launch of the French MOOCs platform France Université Numérique), but also to improved information gathering. Overall, the statistics suggest that while European universities took a longer time to get involved, they may now account for approximately one third of the MOOCs in the world. Download the full paper here.

EUA has published its second Occasional Paper on the topic of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Authored by Michael Gaebel, Director of the Higher Education Policy Unit at EUA, it also looks in detail at a number of issues related to the development of MOOCs that are directly relevant for universities. The full paper can be downloaded here.
International MOOCs facilitators
Despite the fact that MOOCs have gained popularity in other parts of the world, the focus is still in the US, with providers such as Coursera, edX and Udacity not only growing in size, but also developing much more distinguishable profiles. For universities, participation in these platforms is not only solid from the technical points of view and the services provided, but also makes investment and risk in MOOCs rather containable. In addition, a main attraction for European and other international higher education institutions to join is that it guarantees international visibility...
Udemy
Established in 2010, it provides 8 000 courses for one million learners. Courses are based on practical skills, and the target are learners from all walks of life, those who want to improve, for example, their computer skills, yoga, astronomy or just learn how to negotiate a higher salary. Udemy works with individual lecturers, not with institutions. It takes pride in recruiting expert lecturers from everywhere, including business and Ivy League universities. But it invites anybody to become a lecturer, and also offers courses to help people to set up their courses, and meet the quality requirements. It provides a detailed list of criteria that have to be fulfilled to get a course published (e.g. at least 30 minutes of content, of which 60% has to be video; clear structure; criteria to be met for audio and video quality; a free-to-try lecture etc.). Most courses charge a fee between US$9 and US$99.
… and other platforms
There are more platforms, some of them already existing before the MOOC hype started, such as the longstanding Apple University, one of the pioneers in offering lectures online; and Sakai (www.sakaiproject.org), which aims at building communities of educators to create open software to advance learning, teaching and research. Institutions can become members of the Sakai Foundation, or Canvas (www.canvas.net), which has 4.5 million users and facilitates professional and academic courses, usually offered by higher education institutions or other education providers. Even though all these platforms are based in the US, however, they are by no means national platforms, but open for international participation. This is true regarding the institutions that offer courses, but also regarding the course participation, as for example the map of Coursera’s global footprint suggests (www.insidehighered.com/blogs/globalhighered/mapping-courseras-global-footprint). Download the full paper here.

EUA has published its second Occasional Paper on the topic of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Authored by Michael Gaebel, Director of the Higher Education Policy Unit at EUA, it also looks in detail at a number of issues related to the development of MOOCs that are directly relevant for universities. The full paper can be downloaded here.
Introduction
With the rapid development of MOOCs, EUA published an occasional paper in January 2013 on MOOCs for discussion at the EUA Council, and for information for EUA membership. The present paper aims to provide an update on these developments, particularly as they concern European higher education.
The main issues described in this update are: 
- International MOOCs facilitators: The largest concentration of MOOCs is still in the US. The three big providers, Coursera, edX and Udacity have been growing in size and have also developed distinct profiles.
- European reactions to MOOCs: Despite Europe’s mitigated reaction and less hype than in the US, there has been a sharp increase in MOOCs, to the extent that around one third of MOOCs around the world involve European higher education institutions. 1 This has happened through participation in the US platforms, as well as European initiatives launched by the universities themselves, but also by private start-ups, often with support from national governments, telecommunication companies and foundations.
- A European dimension: One issue is also whether and how MOOCs can develop a genuine European dimension. The current trend is that there are some platforms at national level in larger European countries, which may be profiled via language rather than belonging to the national higher education system: there will be separate English, French, German and Spanish platforms with a degree of openness to other languages. The European open universities have launched their own MOOCs portal. The European Commission has expressed its interest and support in exploring the potential of MOOCs in various ways, among others through studies, and provision of funding, and a new website launched along with its “Opening Up Education” Communication. A first European MOOCs stakeholder summit took place in June 2013 in Lausanne, with a follow-up summit scheduled for 10- 12/02/2014. The question remains whether and how MOOCs could complement the structures and instruments developed in the European Higher Education Area.
- Around the globe: MOOCs have also been developed in other parts of the world, and not surprisingly, basically everywhere where education structures are already well-developed. Many of the platforms in emerging countries provide access to courses from the US and from Europe.
- Business models: MOOCs companies are under pressure either to transfer costs to course participants or to generate income from other sources. Their ability to gather venture capital suggests that there is economic potential – but only time will show whether these MOOCs initiatives are successful or doomed to fail. Predictably their success will depend firstly on business strategies and markets, and only secondly on educational needs and quality.
- Learning and teaching: the impact on learning and teaching is still unclear, but it is quite obvious that MOOCs do not replace institutional higher education provision, but supplement it, e.g. if used in blended learning within universities, as individual lifelong learning opportunity (predominantly during or after higher education studies) or as a means to reach out to new target groups (e.g. through continued professional education). For some of these options, the question is whether and how “massive” they have to be, and what exactly distinguishes them from other forms of blended and online learning. First answers to these questions are courses provided for a fee, MOOCs with the additional options of student support and certificates or even credits. An interesting question is whether these services are provided solely by the higher education institution, or in collaboration with the MOOC platforms or other external service providers, a phenomenon which is increasingly referred to as “unbundling”. This may impact the general understanding, definition and award processes for academic degrees, and respectively strengthen alternative validation routes.
- MOOCs impact higher education institutions in different ways, depending on the type of institution, and its socio-economic and legal framework. As in other areas, such as internationalisation or regional cooperation, universities on both sides of the Atlantic find themselves in very different situations and respond differently to MOOCs. US institutions are under a much stronger economic pressure to respond, and reaction in the US ranges from determination to develop new education and business models to concern about the future of those institutions that cannot develop MOOCs, and about higher education in general. Many of the European universities seem to be more concerned about lagging behind international competition, and look at MOOCs as a global promotion opportunity. There is excitement among those staff members who have been working in e-learning and open education for many years. But there is also frustration that insight from and achievements of longstanding e- and distance learning practice are either ignored or presented as recent innovation. There is also some concern that MOOCs might not promote real learning innovation, and would be used simply to save costs rather than improve quality. But overall, the impression is that European universities look at technology-enhanced learning, including MOOCs, in a positive and forward-looking way.
I should like to thank all colleagues at EUA who provided comments and support to the paper, and also the members of the EUA Task Force for Innovative Learning and Teaching for their advice. Special thanks to Zhong Zhou, researcher at Tsinghua University, and Thérèse Zhang, now former colleague at EUA, for their support in gathering information about MOOCs in China.
This is an update to the previous paper, published a year ago. Given the rapid developments, it is almost impossible to keep the paper up-to-date even in the process of writing, and any developments after 01/12/2013 were not taken into consideration.
I have done my best to check and verify all facts, but MOOCs are fast-moving, and sources of information comprise news articles, blogs, but also observations and perceptions of a wider range of individuals active in the fields. I apologise in case that any important developments or initiatives have been omitted or not described accurately. We would welcome your support in notifying us of these and also your contribution to any future updates. Please send any information to: elearning@eua.be. Download the full paper here.

EUA has published its second Occasional Paper on the topic of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).
A follow-up to the first paper published at the beginning of 2013, it is designed to inform and update EUA member universities and other interested stakeholders on the broad range of MOOCs developments that have taken place in recent months particularly in Europe and North America, but also more widely.
Authored by Michael Gaebel, Director of the Higher Education Policy Unit at EUA, it also looks in detail at a number of issues related to the development of MOOCs that are directly relevant for universities. These include the financial aspects of MOOCs (including costs of production and maintenance); implications for both learning and teaching; and the question of awarding credits for MOOCs.
The final section of the paper also outlines some “points for further consideration for European higher education” notably in terms of the evolution and potential benefits of MOOCs and the “responsibility of the university”.
The full paper can be downloaded here.
EUA would also like to remind members and partners that its upcoming Annual Conference “Changing Landscapes in Learning and Teaching” (3-4 April, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) will include a special session on the topic of MOOCs and a working group session on learning and teaching in the digital age. Furthermore, at the General Assembly prior to the conference on 3 April, the results of a mapping study on e-learning at European universities will be presented to EUA members.
Some background on EUA’s work on e-learning and MOOCs

• EUA believes that e-learning, and possibly also MOOCs have great potential with regards to the further development of the European Higher Education Area, and that the “open learning” aspect could further catalyse the structural changes already introduced through the Bologna Process, and boost the institutional cooperation developed, for example through EU programmes. More information on EUA’s work is available here.

Twenty university leaders and senior managers met at the Copenhagen Business School on 19 and 20 February in the framework of the EUA-led DEFINE project, which explores strategies for efficient and sustainable funding of higher education in Europe.
Participants of the Focus Group, representing twelve different higher education systems, evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of their respective funding allocation mechanisms, assessing the fitness for purpose of the various instruments used to deliver funds to institutions. In particular, the work focused on the use of formula-based funding with performance indicators and its articulation with so-called performance contracts, a feature which is common in a number of higher education systems in Europe.
The group agreed on a number of conclusions regarding the use of performance-based funding in higher education, helping to further shape the outcomes of EUA’s ongoing DEFINE project. More...

EUA is pleased to announce that the 9th European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) will take place at the University of Barcelona, Spain, from 13 to 15 November 2014.
Through a mix of plenary and parallel sessions, the 2014 EQAF, entitled “Changing education – QA and the shift from teaching to learning”, will combine practice-oriented or research-based discussions that will take place in the paper sessions and workshops with presentations of current developments in quality assurance. This year, the Forum will explore whether and how current QA approaches are keeping up with and supporting developments in learning and teaching.
The Forum organisers, ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE, have now opened a call for contributions from QA practitioners in higher education institutions and quality assurance agencies, students, academic staff, institutional leaders and researchers in the field. Two types of contributions are sought: papers and workshops.
The deadline to submit contributions is 25 July 2014.
The call for contributions and proposal submission forms are available here.