MOOC Enrollment Explodes in 2020

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 01/05/21

According to a new report by Class Central, a company that tracks massive open online courses, of all learners who have registered for MOOCs throughout their history, a third did so last year. Coursera, the largest MOOC operator, added nearly four times the number of new registered users, exploding from 8 million in 2019 to 31 million in 2020 — a rise of 387 percent. Dhawal Shah, founder of Class Central, estimated that Coursera's total number of users is currently 76 million.

The second largest MOOC organization, edX, doubled in size, expanding from 5 million new registered users in 2019 to 10 million in 2020. Shah put the total user base at 35 million.

UK-based Future Learn nearly met Coursera's pace of growth, adding 5 million new registered users in 2020, compared to 1.3 million in 2019, a boost of 384 percent. The total user base was estimated to be about 15 million.

As Shah explained, when quarantine measures went into effect last spring and "millions suddenly found themselves with free time on their hands," many people turned to online courses. And their interests had changed. Whereas topics in technology, business and career development dominated pre-COVID-19, during the pandemic learners focused on wider interests: Art and design, self-improvement, the humanities, communication skills, health & medicine and foreign languages surfaced in the top 10 subjects.

The most popular course during the pandemic has been Yale University's The Science of Well-Being, with more than 2.5 million enrollments in 2020. Shah estimated that a fifth of the 100 most popular courses launched in 2020 were directly related to COVID-19. At the top of the charts: COVID-19 Contact Tracing, presented by Johns Hopkins University, followed by Harvard University's Mechanical Ventilation for COVID-19.

Shah's full findings are openly available on the Class Central website.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Study: Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and business workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • flowing lines and geometric shapes representing data flow and analysis

    Complete College America Launches Center to Boost Data-Driven Student Success Strategies

    National nonprofit Complete College America (CCA) recently launched the Center for Leadership, Institutional Metrics, and Best Practices (CLIMB), with the goal of helping higher education institutions use data-driven strategies to improve student outcomes.

  • cybersecurity analyst in a modern operations center monitors multiple digital screens showing padlock icons, graphs, and a global map with security markers

    Louisiana State University Doubles Down on Larger Student-Run SOC

    In an effort to provide students with increased access to real-world cybersecurity experience, Louisiana State University has expanded its relationship with cybersecurity solutions provider TekStream to launch TigerSOC, a new student-run security operations center.

  • floating digital interface with glowing icons, surrounded by faint geometric shapes

    Digital Education Council Defines 5 Dimensions of AI Literacy

    A recent report from the Digital Education Council, a global community devoted to "revolutionizing the world of education and work through technology and collaboration," provides an AI literacy framework to help higher education institutions equip their constituents with foundational AI competencies.