MOOCs, a new arena of competition between universities and higher education institutions, are putting real pressure on universities, particularly those in developing countries, which unfortunately do not enjoy the same prestige as some major universities. COURSERA, the world's largest MOOC platform, reveals that only 39% of MOOC registrants came from the United States, followed by Brazil, India, China, and Canada, while more than 60% of available courses come from American universities.
So, even if these courses allow everyone, especially in poor regions, to access a better education for free, it is nevertheless a real threat to "local" universities that would not meet the new standards of excellence expected by students who have become accustomed to following video courses from professors at Yale, Harvard or Brown University! Furthermore, creating a MOOC is not without representing a real financial investment and not all universities will be able to afford the luxury of offering their courses online. They therefore risk quickly finding themselves lagging behind in terms of international influence. In the years to come, this situation risks posing difficult dilemmas for the deans of small to medium-sized universities (in terms of both reputation and size), thereby establishing a vicious circle.
Sebastian Thrun, Director of Research and Development at Google, predicts that in 50 years, only 10 universities in the world will still be "delivering" higher education content. The question of standardizing higher education also arises: how can we preserve the diversity of educational content?
The platform race is now open, and the global competition between countries, universities, and even "MOOC students" versus "real students" is well and truly underway! The real challenge will then be for each university to capitalize on its brand and international reputation to stand out, with Harvard and Stanford currently positioning themselves as leaders in the online education market.
