At certain points in 2020, Google search volume for “masterclass” surpassed that of “business school.”
Folks are increasingly questioning the value of traditional higher ed. Why pay Harvard $80k per year when you can take the university’s computer science courses for free on YouTube?
That’s a reality partially brought on by Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) over the last decade.
In 2011, Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller posted videos of Ng’s machine-learning course online. In short order, 100k+ people viewed it — and boom, Coursera was born.
Today’s Coursera isn’t that different, just magnitudes larger: The platform boasts:
Coursera offers everything from one-off courses to certificate programs and some accredited bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
EdX built its name around free Harvard-MIT computer science courses and has 35m users. Another, Udemy, is used for upskilling by 80% of Fortune 100 companies.
A widely reported challenge for MOOCs are completion and re-enrollment rates, which in 2018 sat around 3% and 7%, respectively, according to an MIT study.
The market for online degrees is expected to reach $74B by 2025 — and by 2030, the global education market could reach $10T.
NYU Professor Scott Galloway predicts we’ll see hybrid offerings from partnerships the likes of MIT/Google, UCLA/Netflix, and Berkeley/Microsoft that offer “80% of a traditional four-year degree for 50% of the price.”
But the jury’s still out on how online degrees will replicate the magic and unbridled joy of a beer pong tournament.