Abstract:

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) stand for massive open online courses that are offered to many people around the world. These MOOCs can be created, hosted, and disseminated through a learning management system (LMS) or using some of the online providers available worldwide, to make it accessible to learners. These providers have become widely used, as they are integrated on the web, allowing users to create their personalized MOOCs online and host on the website.

The first MOOC provider appeared in 2012 in the United States of America (MoocLab, 2018) and 2 years later, in 2014, there were already more than 60 MOOC providers worldwide, offering more than 2,400 courses, in partnership with more than 400 universities (El Emrani & Merzouqi, 2019). According to data collected by the Central Class, in 2019, the MOOC movement reached 120 million students, more than 2,500 courses and over 900 universities around the world (Central Class, 2019). With the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, in 2020 there was an explosion of online courses, bringing many people to online education, with the number of MOOCs crossing the barrier of 180 million students, more than 16,500 courses offered and more than 950 universities around the world (central class, 2020).

Each provider offers MOOCs through its own technical and pedagogical characteristics. Accordingly, to (Raposo-Rivas, Martínez-Figueira and Sarmiento-Campos, 2015) the pedagogical components of each course are defined by the provider that hosts them, so it’s important to know the characteristics of each provider before deciding which one to use. This paper is dedicated to the study of the technical and pedagogical characteristics of the three most popular academic providers - Coursera, EdX and MiriadaX - from the perspective of two of its main users - learners and instructors. Learners can browse courses on a panel, enroll in courses autonomously anywhere on the planet, get university-level course experience, manage their profile, access the instructors' biography, collaborate on distance projects (depending on the course), check the enrollment and completion status of the courses and obtain certificates from an accredited institution. Instructors can create and publish courses, post on discussion boards, manage courses, teams, grades, communicate with students, build and manage questionnaires/surveys.

The main purpose of Coursera, EdX and MiriadaX is to reach as many people as possible worldwide. Coursera and EdX are two pioneers among MOOC suppliers (MoocLab, 2018). MiríadaX is the first Ibero-American MOOC provider that focuses on promoting quality knowledge in Spanish and Portuguese. In all cases, the courses are deepened and taught by some of the most renowned universities in the world. These learning providers are integrated, web-based which allows users to create online and host their custom MOOCs on their websites. These are federated providers, with robust interactive features, questionnaire/survey building tools, live webinar options and multimedia options. Each of them is built around a specific educational philosophy associated with the methodologies governed by the universities that support them. Although, as a learner, the choice of one of the providers is reduced to personal preferences and domains and learning objectives, from the perspective of the instructor, the choice is related to the educational philosophy of the institution.

Keywords:

MOOC, MOOC providers.