Giving Compass' Take:

• MOOC products are becoming more accessible to higher education institutions as COVID-19 forces education systems to turn to online resources. 

• What might be the significant barriers for MOOCs now? 

• Learn more about COVID-19's long-term impacts on the education system. 

Large-scale courses known as MOOCs were invented to get free or low-cost education to people who could not afford or get access to traditional options. But in recent years they had faded from the public spotlight, and more of the content was put behind paywalls.

However, as COVID-19 has forced an unprecedented shift to online teaching at colleges around the world, students and colleges are looking with renewed interest at the format.

Duke has long built MOOCs through its partnership with Coursera, a major platform for large-scale courses, and it also had previously negotiated an arrangement with Coursera to make all of the certificate programs and courses in Coursera’s library available to all of Duke’s students (in the U.S. or in China), said Noah Pickus, Duke’s associate provost, during a live discussion Tuesday co-hosted by EdSurge.

As the virus spread to the U.S., Coursera decided to expand free access to a wider audience, for a limited time, so that they can make use of MOOC content in their teaching. On March 12, the company announced that any other college impacted by the coronavirus, even if they aren’t a partner of the company, can request free access to Coursera’s catalog of 3,800 courses for the impacted college’s students.

Hundreds of colleges around the world have taken Coursera up on the new offer, said Arunav Sinha, head of global communications for the company. In the past few days the company has approved free access for 550 colleges in 120 countries, he adds, and it is still processing other valid requests.

Other MOOC providers are making similar offers.

Read the full article about MOOCs and COVID-19 by Jeffrey R. Young at EdSurge.