Report: Global MOOC Market Continuing to Grow

  • By Julia Sufrin
  • 07/22/14

A new report issued by TechNavio and available for purchase in the Sandler Research online store says that the global market for MOOCs will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 56.61 percent over the period 2013-2018.

According to Sandler Research, "Global Massive Open Online Courses Market 2014-2018" was conducted using a combination of primary and secondary information. The company got input from key participants in the industry, including Coursera, edX, Udacity, Udemy, Academic Partnerships, Apple, Codecademy, Crypt4you, FutureLearn, Iversity, Khan Academy, NovoEd, Peer 2 PeerUniversity, PIER International Education Services, StraighterLine and Veduca Edtech.  

The report found that growth of the global MOOC market is driven by several factors — chief among them the rising cost of higher education. On the other hand, the report states that the future of the market is constrained by factors including the low completion rate of students enrolled in MOOCs. In 2013, the average completion rate of MOOCs was less than 7 percent. The report recognizes that the main reason for such low completion rates is the lack of motivational factors such as college credits or certifications.

Another key trend is that universities are increasingly turning to MOOC providers for large student data analyses. According to an analyst from TechNavio’s team, the online nature of MOOCs allows educators to manage records, calculate examination outcomes and grade assignments using MOOCs’ big data tools and analytics. This gives educators the advantage of using real-time data management as opposed to traditional data-gathering techniques.

About the Author

Julia Sufrin is a contributing writer based in Los Angeles.

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