MOOC or ‘Massive Open Online Courses’ is the recent phenomenon in the education industry with the proliferation of players such as Coursera, Udacity, NovoEd, EdX, and Khan Academy. MOOCs are free to students, and open to anyone globally (regardless of age, and qualifications); hence, a course might attract thousands to tens of thousands of registrants. MOOC providers entice students with snappy, high professional quality, short instructional videos that communicate learning content succinctly. Currently, MOOCs are offered in partnerships with ivy-league universities and professors. Our paper ascertains whether this MOOC-phenomenon pose a threat or opportunity to the less-endowed and/or public colleges and universities. We discuss strategic business and pedagogical models of MOOC providers and universities, as well as competitive threats and partnership opportunities with MOOC’s proliferation.

Keywords

flipped classroom · Learning Management systems · massive open online course · MOOC · university partnerships