10 lessons learned from MOOCs

Massive open online courses embarked on what was supposed to be their climb to world domination, or at least a complete transformation of higher education, in 2012. It was the "Year of the MOOC," as declared by The New York Times, and the so-called Big Three of MOOC providers taught their first courses that year. For-profit providers Coursera and Udacity launched in January and February of that year, respectively. And EdX, the non-profit collaborative venture of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, launched its first MOOCs later that fall. Fast-forward two years, and the predictions about the disruptive effect MOOCs would have on traditional colleges and universities have, so far, been overblown. But with two years of experience under their belts, MOOC providers and users are adjusting both their perceptions about online learning and the courses themselves...