The Attack of the MOOCs
The attack of the MOOCs
An army of new online courses is scaring the wits out of traditional universities. But can they find a viable business model?DOTCOM mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete. Meanwhile, the MOOCs have multiplied in number, resources and student recruitment—without yet having figured out a business model of their own.This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The attack of the MOOCs”From the July 20th 2013 editionDiscover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition