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What are the best ways to make money with a online education product, using a mooc model?
Hi! Thank you for your question to Wonder about the best ways to make money with a online education product using a MOOC model. In short, the best ways to generate revenue are to offer paid courses along with free courses, online one-on-one instructions, advertising, paid examinations and connecting the learners to employers. Below you will find my deep dive!
METHODOLOGY
I have gone through a few of the MOOCs websites to know their business models and MOOC offerings as well as some review websites on these MOOCs. I have also analyzed a research report funded by the European Union on the feasibilty of MOOCs with regard to higher education institutions. I have then identified and listed the best possible ways a MOOC can earn revenue below.
MOOC REVENUE MODEL
So, these are the best methods/models to make money through MOOCs. According to openeducationeuropa.eu and Technavio MOOCS like Udacity and Intrepid learning lend their platform for private MOOC creators and also allow MOOCs sponsored by corporates. To summarize, the following ways generate the most revenue through MOOCs:
-Offering free courses which the learners can complete. However, learners will be sent a recognized certificate from the partner institution only after paying a fee. The course creator can charge the fees according to the level and the duration of the course.
- Advertising may be a possible way to get revenue, though it is still an unexplored option. For example, Alison charges its advertisers based on course, transaction page and narrative page traffic page analysis.
-Offering help personally from an online tutor by paying a little extra. Many learners leave their courses midway due to lack of guidance so mentors are wanted on the platforms.
-At the end of the course, the students have to pay to take examinations. A proctoring service for the assessment of the learner's work can be included.
-Designing your plaform for corporates and receiving sponsorships. A personalized and specialized learning platform to meet the employees' career goals.
-The learners pay for storing their electronic version of the course certificates for reference in the future in one place like a resume.
-Connecting the learners to employers by charging extra fees. The MOOCs provide evidence of the completion of a learner's course to potential employers.
Examples of the business models of MOOCS are -edX has 1300 courses and 10 million learners. edX, which is a non profit organization, charges an upfront fees 50,000$ from its partner institutions and provides paid certificates priced between 25$ to 100$ depending on the course and level.
Coursera gives 6-15% of its gross profits to its partners. It has 1700 courses and 23 million learners. Coursera earns money through verified certificates. 92% users found Coursera good in case of corporate training.
Udacity has 4 million students. They help to facilitate corporate training. Udemy allows individual and independent instructors to create their courses and offer these to learners for a fee. Udemy takes a part of the fees as commission. 50% of the net price is given as revenue.
Alison, a MOOC provider based in Ireland, concentrates on the education for the masses who need to learn specific skills i.e. vocational education. It gets its revenues from advertising apart from revenue sharing with course creators.
Futurelearn, based in UK claims that they have over 23% complete participation. Futurelearn offers paid certificates for revenue. Iversity is a MOOC provider, based in Berlin that concentrates on European MOOCs with over 700,000 enrollments and more than 50 courses from European universities. It offers ETCS track system i.e. university credits. It gets its revenue from fees for certificate after course completion, licensing of courses and connecting employers.
UNIVERSITY MOOCs AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT
A recent report suggests that schools/universities get 71% of revenue by offering credit based courses on MOOCs for which fees is taken from learners. ExtensionEngine is a company that has helped Harvard and MIT develop their MOOCs. It is a company which helps to develop customized learning platforms or softwares. According to Dr. Scott Moore, before creating a request for proposal (RFP) these points need to be kept in mind- describing the target learners, specifying learning objectives, business model, content evaluation, timing of the course, kind of technology the course creator and the learners will use, timing of the course , measurement and effectiveness of the course.
STUDY OF MOOCs IN EUROPE
According to a study conducted through the European Union funded HOME project, here are some of its findings on higher education institutions and MOOCs:
-35% of the higher education institutions(HIEs) are offering MOOCs and 45% are planning to add MOOCs. for the last three years
-the highest target group is lifelong learners according to the report. The online/distance students has been most impacted the most with close to 60% and a little over 50% for management staff.
-the most sustainable way of delivering MOOCs according to the report is through teacher instruction/ videos and resources with a little over 50% respondents,(Fig:16).
Studies have also been conducted as to whether the HIEs will collaborate with other organizations in providing MOOCs:
-In Europe, private academic partnerships with HIEs in most forms of services that MOOCs offer seem to be unfavorable.(Fig:29)
-the most favorable services that third party agents are going to be offered are co-creating MOOCs and the use of their platforms.
-the question of introducing fixed start/end dates gets positive response but self pacing is has also becoming relevant now.(Fig:36).
CONCLUSION
To sum up, as Europe is a continent that is diverse, regional and cross border collaboration with regard to cultures, languages, teaching and learning processes will be given much emphasis through the possible support of the government. The best ways to earn revenue from MOOCs is to provide something extra by which the learners can get nearer to their career objectives. Thank you for using Wonder and please let us know if we can help with anything else.