ABSTRACT
Since the launch in early 2012 of the first Silicon Valley startups offering what became known globally as Massive Open Online Courses, MOOCs have dominated media headlines and education conferences, attracted legions of both ardent supporters and fierce critics, and inspired the creation of numerous similar online learning platforms around the world. By enrolling millions of students in free courses taught by professors from internationally renowned universities, MOOCs have sparked an ongoing conversation about the future of higher education and the role of software and internet technology in its evolution. In a similarly short amount of time, MOOC platform providers have also raised hundreds of millions of dollars of capital—all without having settled on a defined business model.
