This document discusses the sustainability of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It notes that while MOOCs aim to be openly accessible, their production costs are high, ranging from $39,000 to $325,000 per course. As such, university and MOOC platform leaders have announced plans to offer some courses with fees to help cover costs. The document predicts that in the future, European universities will no longer be able to afford offering free MOOCs and professional education courses may become an important revenue source, creating a gap between MOOC platforms and universities. It raises open educational resources using Creative Commons licenses as a sustainable alternative business model.

1. How long will
MOOCs be open?
Michael Kopp
December 5th, 2014
Online Educa Berlin
Graphic items on the
front page are not included

2. Openness
• Freely accessible
• No prerequisites required
• Copyright protection
• Long-term availability
• Reuse of content

3. High Production Costs
Ins$tu$on
MOOC-­‐Type
Weeks
Es$mated
costs
Teachers
College,
Columbia
University*
xMOOC
8
$
38,980
University
of
Manitoba*
cMOOC
12
$
65,800
–
71,800
American
Museum
of
Natural
History*
xMOOC
4
$
104,620
Large
Midwestern
University*
xMOOC
5-­‐8
$
203,770
–
325,330
University
of
Graz
/
Graz
University
of
Technology
xMOOC
6-­‐9
$
31,200
–
37,500
*
Hollands,
F.
M.,
&
Tirthali,
D.
(2014).
MOOCs:
expecta$ons
and
reality.
Full
report.
Center
for
Benefit-­‐
Cost
Studies
of
Educa$on,
Teachers
College,
Columbia
University,
NY.
Retrieved
from:
hdp://cbcse.org/wordpress/wp-­‐
content/uploads/2014/05/MOOCs_Expecta$ons_and_Reality.pdf

4. Poor Business Models
• Certificates
• Personal Mentoring
• Licensing Models
• Advertising and Sponsoring
• Trading Data
• Venture Capital

5. Announcements
I think [Stanford] will have
low cost, high volume, but
non-free courses online that
will help make our online
programmes sustainable.
John Mitchell (August 2014)
Vice-provost for online learning and
overseer of Stanford’s Mooc programme

6. Announcements
Professional education
courses are fee-based and
will help us further this goal
of sustainability, for both
edX and our partners.
Anant Agarwal (January 2014)
edX CEO

7. In the Future
• (Continental European) Universities
will not any longer afford to offer
MOOCs for free
• Further / Professional Education will
become an (even more) important
market segment
• A gap will arise between MOOC-platform-
providers and universities

8. Open Educational Resources?
• Educational resources that can be
freely used and modified
• Using Creative Commons licenses
• Business model that suits taxpayers
• Avoidance of copyright issues

9. Thank you for your attention!
Michael Kopp @koanmi
michael.kopp@uni-graz.at
www.imoox.at
Presentation on Slideshare
http://de.slideshare.net/anmw/2014-
kopp-how-long-will-moocs-be-open