Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 10

Internet Learning
The major players are all well known:
Coursera, started by two computer science
professors at Stanford University; Udacity,
which emerged from a Stanford University
experiment in which Sebastian Thrun and
Peter Norvig put their class on artificial intelligence
online, with tremendous results;
and edX, the lone nonprofit, based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts that was founded and
is jointly governed by MIT and Harvard.
Each has invested millions in their own online
learning platforms. The main difference
between them is the courses they have to offer
and the structure and style of delivery of
these courses.
Coursera was founded in 2011 and
publicly launched its proprietary platform
in April 2012. More than 80 institutions,
including Yale, Northwestern, and Stanford,
offer some 400 courses. The company
claimed more than four million students in
late 2013. Among the major players, Coursera
has generated the most funding, with
more than $65 million invested so far. In
January 2013, the company launched a new
service that it said could be its biggest source
of revenue: selling “verified certificates” that
authenticate students’ identities and offer a
more valuable credential. Titled “Signature
Track,” the new program garnered 25,000
signups and earned $1 million in revenue by
September 2013.
Udacity, founded in 2012, famously
began as a hugely successful experiment
by Stanford University professors, Sebastian
Thrun and Peter Norvig, who put online
their class on artificial intelligence. Thrun
is the inventor of Google's self-driving car
and one of the forces behind Google Glass.
Unlike EdX and Coursera, Udacity produces
courses in its own studio, rather than
distributing content created by universities;
their 30 courses are taught by faculty from
at least five universities, plus private partner
companies such as Google, NVIDIA, Microsoft
and Autodesk. As of the end of 2012, the
company reported more than 750,000 students.
Udacity raised $21.1 million in capital
by December 2012, and the number of
courses doubled in 2013, with high-profile
partnerships announced with the Georgia
Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and
San Jose State. However, the company has
experienced challenges in 2013; in January,
San Jose State was signed as a major partner,
with a major for-credit course experiment
planned, but early results were mixed, and
in July, the effort was put on hold. Georgia
Tech is currently working with Udacity in an
online master's degree that gives students a
real economic incentive.
As The New York Times noted, when
Georgia Tech’s master’s degree in computer
science is launched in January 2014 using
Udacity’s platform, they will do it for a
fraction of the on-campus cost, a first for an
elite institution. If it even approaches its goal
of drawing thousands of students, it could
signal a change to the landscape of higher
education. The online degree will cost students
$6,600, far less than the $45,000 that
the same program would cost on campus.
EdX, the sole not-for-profit entity in
the top three, was founded in May 2012, and
has grown to include 28 institutions in what
is called the xConsortium. The organization
offers about 60 courses on its open source
platform, and claimed one million registered
users in June 2013. Led by co-founders
MIT and Harvard, plus Berkeley and Cornell,
EdX has $60 million in funding from
Harvard and MIT in startup money, along
with another $1 million from the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation. In February
2-13 and then again in May, EdX doubled its
university partners and expanded abroad.
The early success of the major players,
and the tremendous attention they have
drawn, both in terms of student interest and
funding, created a firestorm in both the ed-
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