The Europe massive open online courses (MOOC) market was valued at USD 1289.8 million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 3403.9 million by 2025, registering a CAGR of 17.03% over the forecast period, 2020 - 2025. The advancements in information and communication technologies are forcing educators and learners to get over the limitation of time, space, and environment. While a traditional classroom education is well-known, learning systems outside the classroom, especially those enhanced through technology, are still being discussed. In April 2019, Udemy launched its corporate learning product, Udemy for Business, in Spain. It has a new collection of courses in Spanish designed to facilitate teams and companies to drive more impactful learning by the method of a curated selection of the top technical and business skills.

  • Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) represent the final stage in distance education, as these offer open educational resources to the students all around the world. MOOCs are designed to be scalable to large online masses, with free participation, and without formal requirements to provide millions of individuals around the world the opportunity to learn through hundreds of public and private universities or organizations worldwide.? ?
  • The MOOC platform is widely being adopted across various European universities, colleges, and other public and private organizations that include all kinds of courses ranging from certification courses as well as a Master’s degree. For instance, Salesforce and OpenClassrooms, the European leader in online education, collaborated to offer online courses for high-demand jobs in the technology sector. The program commenced in May 2019 in France and is the first fully digital, online diploma course that is recognized by the French government.
  • Moreover, the European MOOCs stakeholder summit 2019 was held at the University of Naples Federico II – Italy. The key takeaways from the summit were MOOC platform converges into the business model, focusing on large scale learning, continued innovation, and to move on from MOOC with personalized learning named "education 4.0".
  • Further, FUN (France Universit? Num?rique) is a MOOC platform that dominates the French Online Course Ecosystem. As of June 2019, FUN had 537 MOOCs and had more than one million registered students and 3.9 million registrations to its courses undertaken in collaboration with 106 universities, according to Class Central. The majority of these registrations were based out of France (67%), and about 75% were aged 25 to 64. The age profile of the learners underlines the importance of MOOCs in the country for upskilling its workforce.
  • Apart from platforms, many universities are taking many initiatives that are expected to proliferate the penetration of MOOCs in the region. For instance, in Spain, on 27 January 2020, the UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) will start offering MOOC on health literacy, a pioneering initiative that has five modules and is being introduced with the aim of bettering public health in Spain. The MOOC will be shared over both Mir?adax and Twitter.
  • Moreover, the region is witnessing significant partnerships and collaboration to expand the MOOC ecosystem. For instance, ESMT Berlin and the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) recently announced a proposed collaboration to offer management education to international executives. The Executive MBA program that will be delivered using the blended learning approach will integrate the physical infrastructure of the local AHKs with the digital infrastructure of the ESMT online-learning platform.
  • Moreover, the CPVID-19 outbreak has led to a surge in the enrollment of online courses. The researchers, universities, and independent educators joined to partner with MOOC providers to offer specialized courses online in the region.
  • For instance, in March 2020, Imperial researchers (UK) and Coursera partnered to offer a Massively Open Online Course, in order to explain coronavirus’s scientific nature and spread. The course attracted over 68,000 learners and over 1.2 million pageviews and was launched on Coursera. It provides updates on the current state of the epidemic while explaining the epidemiological and public health principles being followed by Imperial’s world-leading researchers.



Key Market Trends

Technology Subject Type to Witness a Significant Growth in the Region

  • Enrollments in courses on the technology domain have seen a rise due to primary factors being upskilled of the workforce and increased adoption of such sophisticated knowledge across industry verticals.
  • With automation and IoT at the center of new technological approaches for development, production, and the entire logistics chain, otherwise known as smart factory automation, has further driven the adoption of MOOC among working professionals in the region. According to ETNO, the number of Internet of Thing (IoT) active connections in the industry sector in the European Union (EU) in 2019, is expected to be 3.81 million.
  • Moreover, while ranking the top enrolled courses on the provider’s website, 3 out of the top 5 courses enrolled count for the technology domain, specifically data science, R Programming, and Machine Learning. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), programming languages, and analytics are giving momentum to the market studied.
  • In June 2019, Europe’s main MOOC providers such as FuturLearn, MiriadaX, FUN, EduOpen had partnered to create new micro-credentials that will allow learners to earn academic credit while gaining in-demand skills. The objectives include stimulating the creation of online courses, popularizing their use in academia and industry, and guiding the development of education policy in Europe.



United Kingdom to Witness Significant Growth in the Market

  • In the United Kingdom, distance learning evolved from correspondence courses. This resulted in a large base of both domestic and international students that take MOOC courses offered by UK universities.
  • The Open University, which is one of the largest academic institutions in the United Kingdom, is a pioneer in flexible distance learning courses. According to the University, 76% of its students work full-time or part-time, thereby helping both students and organizations bridge the skill gap to enhance businesses and careers. MoocLab’s World University Rankings commissioned by MOOC Performance (WURMP) placed the Coventry University of the United Kingdom as the top MOOC university in the world.
  • The British Council’s Learn online with a UK university campaign recently expanded its offerings with 325 MOOCs from 35 UK universities through the FutureLearn platform, thereby underlining the UK government’s resolve to offer premium UK courses across the world.
  • In July 2019, the University of Cape Town (UCT) collaborated with the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. The collaboration sought to launch a novel online course on "Researchers without Borders Ph.D. program." The two universities developed a framework agreement for operating co-tutored PhDs, and thus, offering opportunities for students to work on research projects exploiting the strengths and capabilities of both institutions.
  • Also, in October 2019, the Dickson Poon School of Law and King’s College London, along with the Judiciary of England and Wales, announced the launch of an online course. The course is specifically designed to explain the workings, purpose, and impact of the modern Judiciary to young people across the country. The MOOC developed by the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s Online, and the Judiciary are set to be hosted on the FutureLearn platform in early 2020.



Competitive Landscape

The Europe MOOC market is moderately consolidated due to the presence of many prominent players in the market. The key players are adopting strategies, such as product innovation, staying ahead of the competition. Some of the players in the market are Coursera, FutureLearn, OpenupEd, Mirada X, among others.

  • January 2020 - The Ortega y Gasset University Research Institute associated with Mir?adax and created the first open online itinerary of Public Management, allow thousands of public managers throughout Latin America to access specialized, innovative and quality knowledge, allowing them not only to improve qualitatively as professionals but also the service they provide to citizens from their institutions.
  • October 2019 - The company launched Coursera for Campus to help universities around the world use its content to deliver multi-disciplinary online learning.
  • June 2019 - Dublin City University and FutureLearn announced a global strategic partnership to help meet the fast-growing demand for career-long, flexible learning. This partnership enables the university to remain at the forefront of the digital movement that is transforming 21st-century education.



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