:: The 4th Era ::

"Today, Google took another big step into the open courseware game, announcing a new partnership with edX — the Harvard and MIT-backed, non-profit organization that currently stands as one of the Big Three MOOC Providers, along with Udacity and Coursera. Together, the two companies plan to launch MOOC.org, a site that will allow teachers, businesses — and really anyone — to create their own digital course and share it with the world. As of now, the site is slated for launch in the first half of 2014....

"Certainly, Udacity, edX and Google seem hellbent on recalibrating the focus of higher education and learning content, focusing on content that will help students learn how to become part of a modern, and increasingly more technical, global workforce. Whether the increasing role of Google and other tech companies in the educational landscape will be welcomed by academia is one thing, however, at the very least, these two experiments could serve to boost the profile of MOOC-style education, particularly of edX itself. It also seems to indicate the increasing likelihood that, whoever should win the battle to become the world’s largest open course platform, Google will be there to lend a hand — and share a piece of the pie."

by Jeff Cattel

"It's been a month since Blackboard announced plans [mid-July 2013] to offer a dedicated, purpose-built platform to house massive open online courses for any of its clients. The news sent ripples through the online education world and threatened less-established education startups, such as Udacity, Coursera and edX, all of which offer the opportunity for educators to create MOOC-type products. So far, dozens of Blackboard's more than 37,000 worldwide clients have joined on — a respectable number, but not something that will upend online education as we know it.

"But MOOC domination wasn't Blackboard's plan when entering the market. Part of the company's value proposition when it comes to adding MOOCs to its Blackboard Learn platform is an already established familiarity with the interface and platform. Professors at thousands of higher education institutions across the country already use the company's learning management system."