{"id":5339,"date":"2024-07-31T09:39:31","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T07:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/?p=5339"},"modified":"2024-11-23T12:10:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T10:10:32","slug":"mooc-to-edx-to-2u-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/mooc-to-edx-to-2u-to\/","title":{"rendered":"MOOC’s to EdX to 2U to.."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the 25th Of July 2024, 2U announced that it was poised for growth<\/a>, while it also declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy<\/a>. According to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, 2U inc had “….taken private in a deal that will wipe out more than half of its $945 million debt”. 2U’s share price crashed and then the share price rose<\/a>. There was some speculation about a “short squeeze<\/a>“. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not a stock market expert. I’ll leave that to Phil Hill<\/a>. But I am intrigued in the confidence that Paul (CEO of 2U) exudes in their press release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Today marks an important milestone for 2U. New capital and a healthier balance sheet will enable us to continue our long-standing mission,\u201d<\/p>\nPaul Lalljie, Chief Executive Officer of 2U.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

While the company was going private in the US, it also advertised for 12 Positions<\/a> in Cape Town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consensus On LinkedIn was that its “founders, from the very start, were clearly interested in benefitting financially. They grew it to a size that netted them a satisfactory financial return, and cashed out. Business as usual”. Or that the winners” here were two of the wealthiest institutions on the planet.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These activities reminded me again about my MOOC \/ EdX experience. And I thought it would be good to jog my (and other readers memory), about how cMOOCs became xMOOCs (with EdX doing the business) and then how 2U took the model further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term “MOOC” was coined by Dave Cormier and Bryan Alexander. It was used to refer to a course developed by Stephen Downes and George Siemens entitled “Connectivism and Connectivity Knowledge”. Entry to the course cost in person students, but it was free to online students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had been a observer of the early cMOOC<\/a>s, when I was based in Pietermaritzburg. The emphasis was networking and learning from other individuals, listening to different opinions, and forming one’s own. Just when I got to Johannesburg in 2010, I enrolled in #PLENK2010<\/a>, but did not follow the instructions to introduce ourselves on Moodle. But choose to write my introduction on my blog<\/a>, Lindsay Jordan<\/a> left a comment<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a few weeks I was on a course with people like Dave Cormier<\/a> and Stephen Downs<\/a>. Two founders of the DIY constructivist version of Massive, Open, Online Course (cMOOC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the end of 2014, I flew to Boston to attend join the EdX event. There I attended a Training Workshop on the 18th and 19th of November and then EdX Global Forum on the 20th and 21st of November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These seemed like heady days for online learning. Barack Obama announced<\/a> an EdX White House Partnership, free training courses for teachers and free certificates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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