By Dave Holloway
There was a time, just over a decade ago, when Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were touted as the future of online education. The explosion of online course providers like Coursera, edX, and Udemy created a wave of optimism. Could these bite-sized bursts of learning finally bridge the gap between prestigious educational institutions and a (possibly imagined) global audience hungry for knowledge?
At the time, online degrees were still a niche product. MOOCs offered something new: a chance for universities to reach a massive audience while maintaining their authority and accreditation. They allowed for a more casual, less costly interaction with learners who weren't looking for a full degree. The name itself, "MOOC," borrowed from the online gaming world of MMORPGs, signalled a new kind of massive, open community.
Sheffield entered this market in 2014, partnering with the UK-based platform FutureLearn, a subsidiary of the Open University. The concept was simple: short, free courses for the public, with a paid upgrade option. They were asynchronous, taught by academics, and built on ABC Learning Design principles using a mix of articles, videos, quizzes, and discussions. The goal was to provide enough essential knowledge for a learner to feel informed, and perhaps, to consider enrolling in an accredited programme later on.
This is where I started at the University. Coming from a background in film production, I joined a team of education designers and creatives headed by my predecessor Layla Croll. We collaborated with subject matter experts across the university, and our team grew rapidly thanks to the excitement around the platform.
In those early days, the success of these courses relied heavily on the enthusiasm of academics. One of our first big successes was ‘Discover Dentistry’, created by Professor Chris Stokes to provide foundational knowledge for applicants from widening participation backgrounds. It succeeded beyond all expectations and demonstrated the true potential of MOOCs to address a specific, real-world need. To date, ‘Discover Dentistry’ remains our most successful course.
The experimental nature of these courses meant we worked on a wide variety of subjects. We explored English literature through the country house, delved into the British criminal justice system, and even taught people how to write their first song. We were largely left alone to make what we thought would be popular, which allowed for genuine experimentation.
We filmed robots performing complex medical operations, staged gigs in the street, travelled to Italy to study the skulls of criminals, employed students to make animations, used children to lecture on Minecraft, saw a real-world meet up of enthusiastic Austen fans at Chatsworth House, and investigated true-crime murder cases. MOOCs became the perfect meeting point between academics seeking a new populist audience and creatives thrilled to present genuine learning in exciting new ways.
The audience for these courses was just as enthusiastic. Initial runs frequently saw 20,000 enrolments, and the discussion boards buzzed with activity. Learners described them as "like YouTube but where no one is rude in the comments section," and we saw ourselves as creating "BBC4 documentaries made by the researchers themselves."
The MOOC bubble expanded further with the pandemic. COVID, with its captive audience, saw our enrolment numbers soar to over 150,000 a year, and we produced a total of 19 courses. At our peak, the review website Class Central reported that the University of Sheffield had produced 9 of the best online courses ever, beating the likes of MIT and Harvard (and, I am happy to report, those courses still appear in the Best Online Courses of All Time list).
MOOCs have likely had their time in the sun. They were once heralded as the next big thing, a democratising force that would revolutionise education, but the hype has waned. In many ways, their rise and fall mirrored the classic hype cycle of new technologies. We saw the peak of inflated expectations, and now we are on the downward slope, seeking a more sustainable reality.
Despite the large numbers, it's the personal stories that have stayed with me. Over 11 years, we saw more than 1.5 million enrolments, connecting with learners who might never have encountered the University of Sheffield otherwise. There was the corporate executive so inspired by our "Exploring Play" course that he quit his job to start a haptic toy company, the sound engineer who released an album (for which we received a song writing credit), and the health receptionist who used knowledge from our course on domestic violence to help an at-risk woman move into a safe house.
We have received hundreds of examples of personal growth like this across the lifetime of these courses and, for me, they serve a powerful reminder that education doesn't just have to be about qualifications.
The number of University of Sheffield staff who contributed to these courses are in the hundreds and far too numerous to mention, but I’d like to thank every academic, special guest, member of professional services staff and learner who came with us on the FutureLearn journey. The MOOC era may be ending, but I hope the legacy of this work - and the real impact it had on real people - will remain.
Dave Holloway is a Senior Digital Learning Advisor in the Digital Learning Team. He started his career at the University of Sheffield producing Massive Open Online Courses for the FutureLearn platform, and now spends much of his time working with AI, 360 media, virtual reality and video production.