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Organize Your Learning With Class Central’s Custom Lists

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Organize Your Learning With Class Central’s Custom Lists

Disclosure: To support our site, Class Central may be compensated by some course providers.

December 29, 2018

2 minute read


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Class Central Custom Lists

Last week, we silently launched a new feature: the ability for learners to create their own list of courses.  In just a few days, learners have already created hundreds of lists.

This feature builds on top of our My Courses feature, which has been renamed to My Classes (we are Class Central after all…).

Previously, Class Central users could add courses to seven default lists. In preparation for launching Custom Lists, we streamlined the Default Lists and dropped the following lists: Enrolled, Audited, Partially Completed, and Dropped. The active default lists are now as follows: Interested, Taking Right Now, and Completed/Audited. These default lists are one of Class Central’s most popular features. Learners have added courses 6 million times to these lists!  Now, in addition to the default lists, users can create their own lists and name them whatever they want.

2018's Most Popular Free Online Courses

The Custom Lists feature is inspired by YouTube’s playlist feature. There are several ways to create a new Custom List in Class Central. You can quickly create a custom list by hovering over (or clicking on) the +Add button next to a course in our course listing page (or the +Add button on the course page itself).  Or you can create a new list by visiting the My Classes page.

Here are a few examples of public lists:

  1. 2018’s Most Popular Free Online Courses (35 courses) – List by Dhawal Shah
  2. Georgia Tech OMSCS Courses (28 courses) – List by Bobby Brady
  3. iMBA Courses (34 courses) – List by Bobby Brady

When you create a new list, you can choose whether it will be Public, Unlisted, or Private.  Public lists are publicly searchable and viewable. Unlisted lists do not come up in search results but can be accessed by anyone with the URL. Private lists are viewable only to the user who created the list.

At the time of writing of this post, each user is limited to 5 lists and 100 courses per list.

Let us know in the comments what you think of this feature, how you are using it (or plan to use it), or if you have any feature requests. If you’ve already created a Custom List, feel free to share it in the comments too.

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University of Naples Federico II – Italy | May 20 – 22, 2019. Call for papers now open

EdX Puts Up A Paywall for Graded Assignments

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EdX Puts Up A Paywall for Graded Assignments

Disclosure: To support our site, Class Central may be compensated by some course providers.

December 17, 2018

3 minute read


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It finally happened. Early this year, edX removed the word free from their homepage and announced that they would soon start testing a support fee. (Class Central cataloged a few of the tests here.)

Apparently, the results of these tests are in. EdX has decided how it will monetize its MOOC courses going forward. Edx’s paywall will be similar to FutureLearn’s course upgrading feature, in that free users will be able to access the course content for a certain time period. Graded assignments will be behind a paywall.

Coursera was the first to introduce a paywall for graded assignments three years ago. To access the graded assignments, students need to purchase a certificate. Free users could still access the course contents.
FutureLearn Pricing
FutureLearn’s course upgrading feature.

Then in March of 2017, FutureLearn adopted a similar paywall to Coursera’s, with an added twist. In addition to there being a paywall for graded assignments, the content was only available to free users for the duration of the course and two weeks after it ends.

Edx’s new paywall also has a time limit; after the course ends free users won’t be able to access the course content. According to edX, most existing courses (with a few exceptions) will be moved over to this new model. All new courses will be offered under the new model.

Edx Verified vs Audit Track (2018)

It may come as a surprise to some that edX’s paywall will now be higher than Coursera’s, especially since Coursera has borne the brunt of criticism about restricting access to MOOCs, which many attributed to pressure from Coursera’s venture capital (VC) investors.

Now edX, a non-profit, has arrived at a model similar to Coursera’s, a for-profit company which has raised $210 million dollars in VC. Despite the difference in tax status, this move makes sense. EdX and Coursera offer similar products to the same markets.

Will edX’s new monetization strategy pay off? Evidence from other MOOC platforms is mixed. Coursera’s monetization has worked really for them. They have made $140 million in estimated revenue for 2018, out of which $100 million or so might be from their consumer-facing MOOC business. But FutureLearn’s stronger paywall hasn’t generated similar returns. FutureLearn’s revenue touched £8.2M in the last fiscal year (to the end of July).

Coursera’s catalog has more courses from bigger global brands as compared to FutureLearn’s catalog. But there is another big difference – scheduling policy. Nearly Coursera’s entire catalog is available to register and start immediately, as well as purchase a certificate. This is not true for FutureLearn or edX, where many courses are still session based and often are not available to register or purchase a certificate after the course ends.

This difference in scheduling policies might mean that edX’s experience will more closely resemble FutureLearn’s. And if edX and FutureLearn are not able to monetize at the same level as Coursera, they may have to become even more aggressive with their paywalls.

Strangely enough, with this change to edX, Coursera is now the MOOC platform that allows free users to go furthest before hitting a paywall.

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University of Naples Federico II – Italy | May 20 – 22, 2019. Call for papers now open

January 2019’s Future of Learning Conference Focuses on Transformation of Higher Education

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January 2019’s Future of Learning Conference Focuses on Transformation of Higher Education

Disclosure: To support our site, Class Central may be compensated by some course providers.

December 8, 2018

1 minute read


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It can be easy to forget that there is something big going on in higher education. By now, many of us have become used to the fact that for nearly any subject, there are high-quality, free or nearly free materials available for anyone interested in learning. Because so much of formal education remains unchanged, we forget (or ignore) the fact that that the higher education sector may be on the precipice of a transformation in how its core offerings are delivered and consumed.

One of the most exciting conferences in the online learning space, the Future of Learning Conference at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), focuses on this potential for transformation. The conference brings together academics, industry professionals, and policy makers to discuss the impact of digitalization on higher education. Speakers at 2018’s Future of Learning Conference included edX CEO Anant Agarwal, Coursera Co-Founder Andrew Ng, and the CEOs of MOOC platforms Coursera and FutureLearn, as well as many education innovators from across India and beyond.

Next year’s Future of Learning conference is just around the corner. FOL2019 will take place January 4-5, 2019 on IIMB’s campus in Bangalore. The theme of the 2019 conference is Learning 4.0: Connecting the Dots and Reaching the Unreached.

Stay tuned for Class Central’s reporting on FOL2019, as we continue to keep tabs on all that’s new in MOOC-ville.

Class Central is a media partner of the 2019 Future of Learning Conference.

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University of Naples Federico II – Italy | May 20 – 22, 2019. Call for papers now open

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