MOOCS, Money and Profits!

Of the 3 big MOOC  providers Coursera and Udacity have plans to make money. edX, on the other hand, is intentionally non profit .

At this time (2013), MOOC’s are exploring various ways of making money. Even edX, the non profit MOOC, will, it is believed, need to take in some money.

How MOOC’s are making money

Licensing

Coursera makes money by licensing its courses (1). For instance, the University of Pennsylvania’s MOOC courses are licensed out to other colleges like Antioch University that pays a licensing fee which is split between Coursera and the University of Pennsylvania.

Featured Track Courses and Proctored Exams

Coursera offers a ‘featured track. ‘ What distinguishes featured track MOOCs from  other courses is that students verify their identity and take a proctored final exam to gain the certificate of completion.

References

(1)Daily Pennsylvanian , April 5 2013