MOOCs in Europe: Evidence from pilot surveys with

universities and MOOC learners

Authors: Jonatan Castaño Muñoz, Yves Punie, Andreia Inamorato dos Santos,
JRC-IPTS

renewed priorities of ET2020 to provide

"open and innovative education and
Headlines training, including by fully embracing the
digital era" (November 2015)2.
 MOOCs are an important part of
non-formal learning for Open Education is understood as “a
individuals with higher education mode of realising education, often
experience, particularly those enabled by digital technologies. It aims
who are either unemployed or to widen access and participation to
low earners. everyone by removing barriers and
 MOOC certificates currently have making learning accessible, abundant,
and customisable for all. It offers
low value in the labour market
multiple ways of teaching and learning,
and in formal education.
building and sharing knowledge, as well
 Data from studies of MOOCs in as a variety of access routes to formal
Europe sometimes differ from US and non-formal education, bridging
studies. them3”
 The number of MOOCS offered by
HEIs in Europe is growing but Even if Massive Open Online Courses
they are not yet widespread. (MOOCs) are only one element of
 Digital competence is very Open Education, having information
important for participation in about their prevalence in Europe is
MOOCs. important for policy makers and
educational stakeholders. The number of
 The socio-economic profile of
MOOCs on offer is growing, and available
MOOC learners varies according
data refers mainly to the US context.
to the subject of the course.
 Feedback and interaction with This note briefly summarises the
peers and teachers is important evidence from three JRC-IPTS studies on
for MOOC learners, but often the situation of MOOCs in Europe in
does not happen in practice. 2015: MOOCKnowledge, OpenSurvey
and OpenCred.

Policy context Offer of MOOCs by HEIs

The integration of Open Education into In a recent survey in France, Germany,
EU education systems is a policy Poland, Spain and the UK (OpenSurvey),
objective which was raised by the
Opening Up Education Communication 2 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
(September 2013)1. It is also one of the content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52015XG1215%
2802%29
3 Source: forthcoming JRC-IPTS report on
1 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- “Opening up Education: a Support
content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52013DC0 Framework for Higher Education
654 Institutions”.
22% of HEIs declared they are already of MOOC learners in the pilot study are
offering MOOCs and 19% are planning to unemployed (e.g. the unemployment
do so4. This suggests there is important rate7 for Spaniards with higher education
growth potential in Europe5. The survey was 14% in the first quarter of 2015 but
also points to significant country (and it was 28.8% for comparable MOOC
language) differences. learners in the MOOCKnowledge study).
In addition, many have low incomes:
20.2% of MOOC learners residing in
Spain who are working declare they
have an annual salary below €9,000.
Interestingly, these learners also have
stronger intentions to enrol in more
MOOCs in the future than employed and
high income individuals. In addition,
despite having lower digital competence,
unemployed people usually participate in
more MOOCs than those who are
employed.
Teachers are an important target group
for MOOCs. Reflecting the teacher
population in Europe, MOOCs providing
Profile of MOOC learners in teacher training have higher rates of
Europe female participation (69%) than other
Initial results from the pilot MOOCs. In addition, MOOCS that are not
MOOCKnowledge6 study suggest that explicitly designed for teachers also
MOOCs offered by selected European attract people who work in education
institutions attract diverse socio- (between 10% and 25% of MOOC
economic profiles (gender, age, learners in other MOOCS). This may
education, origin, employment situation, have an indirect impact on the level of
salary) which vary according to the topic competence and content knowledge of
of the course. the teaching labour force.

Overall, MOOC learners in Europe are The majority of MOOCKnowledge

individuals from privileged socio- respondents have followed several
economic backgrounds. The pilot study MOOCS. Only 19% of the respondents
found that they have usually completed were participating in a MOOC for the first
higher education (80%) and have high time.
levels of digital competence (mean=6 in Digital compentence plays a key role in
a scale from 1 to 7). Most of them are of the intensity of participation in MOOCs.
working age. The better participants’ digital
However, MOOCs are often followed as a competence was, the more MOOCs they
means of lifelong learning by (educated) followed.
individuals who are either unemployed
N of MOOCS enrolled in the past

or low earners. A significant percentage

4 Data from Spring 2015.

5 As a comparison, a recent study in the US
shows that 11.3% of all HEI were offering
MOOCs in 2015, and only 2.3% were planning
to do so:
http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/repor
ts/2015SurveyInfo.pdf
6 These results come from a pilot study of 6
MOOCS, half of which were Spanish (3 out of 7 Defined as the number of people unemployed
the 6). They are therefore not representative as a percentage of the labour force (Source:
for the MOOC offer in Europe. Eurostat)
39% of learners with previous currently few opportunities for bridging
experience with MOOCs completed all MOOC-based learning and formal
the MOOCs they were enrolled in. 48% education.
completed some of them and 13% did
On the basis of qualitative research and
not complete any. The figures also show
case studies, the OpenCred study has
that learners do not always seek
identified six elements that could be
certificates: 34% of the experienced
incorporated into the MOOC planning
learners did not obtain certificates from
phase that might lead to greater
their previous MOOCs.
possibilities of recognition of MOOC-
based learning by HEIs and employers:
1) identity verification of the learner, 2)
partnership and collaboration, 3) award
of credit points, 4) quality assurance, 5)
informative certificates or badges which
acknowledge learning, and 6) suitable
and supervised assessment.

Learning through MOOCs

Low completion rates are a challenge for
most MOOCs. In our pilot study,
however, most of the learners declared,
before starting the course, that they
Recognition of MOOC learning intend to finish all the activities. Just
Evidence indicates that the value of 14% of the unemployed and 21% of the
MOOC learning is not widely recognised. employed learners aim to select only the
MOOC learners believe that taking parts of the MOOC that they are
MOOCs has more value for personal interested in. It shows the importance of
development than it has for labour studying the gap between intention and
market outcomes (e.g. career behaviour of MOOC learners.
development). Moreover, learners rarely When starting a MOOC, MOOCKnowledge
consider MOOC certificates, in respondents state that interaction with
themselves, as useful for looking for a teachers and peers is very important
job or changing their current one (6.4% (mean = 5.66 and 4.75 respectively in a
of employed and 16.7% of unemployed). scale from 1 to 7, n=1759) In practice,
Despite this, the majority of learners however, this interaction during courses
plan to include MOOC certificates in their happens less often, according to post-
CVs (66% of employed and 68% of course surveys (mean = 3.59 and 3.61
unemployed). respectively, n=431).
Employers are often not aware that their Despite this, our pilot data indicate that
employees are participating in MOOCs or learners are highly satisfied overall with
other lifelong learning activities (58%). the courses. In addition, feedback
In addition, employer support to lifelong activities that help participants to
learning activities has a negative impact understand course content are
on employees’ participation in MOOCs, correlated to higher levels of
but it is positively correlated to satisfaction8.
traditional training.
Most Higher Education Institutions Policy recommendations and
(OpenSurvey data) do not have related JRC work
recognition mechanisms for MOOC- On the basis of the results presented in
based learning. Even in cases where this brief, two main policy
MOOC certificates are based on reliable recommendations can be identified:
assessment methods and linked to a
specific number of ECTS, only 30% of
HEIs are likely to recognise this type of
8 Moderate positive correlation with overall
qualification. This indicates there are satisfaction is statistically significant
(p=0.326***, n=231)
1 - Promote the use of MOOCs for
re-skilling and up-skilling both
unemployed people and workers,
especially for those without employer
support to training activities. This would
be especially relevant for EU countries
with high unemployment rates.
2 - Promote digital competence
development in both formal
education and professional
development activities. This could
lead to a higher participation rate of
individuals in an open education context
and, indirectly, to a reduction in training
costs and greater flexibility in education.
The MOOCKnowledge analysis will be
expanded in 2016-17 to provide more
targeted analysis of policy interest (e.g.
teacher training, employability, and
migrants). JRC will explore the intention-
behaviour gap as a new measurement of
MOOC performance and will analyse the
socio-economic impact of MOOC-based
learning on learners’ careers.

Contact: Edificio Expo, Calle Inca Garcilaso, 3, 41092 Sevilla.

E-mail: Jonatan.CASTANO-MUNOZ@ec.europa.eu
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/institutes/ipts

JRC Mission
Supporting EU policies with independent evidence throughout the whole policy cycle.
JRC101956