MOOC platform: the 3 best providers

In the meantime there are also some German-speaking providers of massive open online courses, better known as MOOC. We present the three best MOOC platforms.

MOOCs at iversity - can also be credited to your studies

iversity offers MOOCs from various departments. From the basics of business administration, marketing, natural sciences or politics to medicine and computer science. The MOOCs are produced and supervised by professors and lecturers from various universities.

• German and English are the main languages ​​of instruction. There are also a few MOOCs in Russian or Spanish.
• The courses are free and freely accessible to everyone. As they are held at university level, previous knowledge is an advantage.
• At the end you can get a certificate of participation or a certificate as proof of achievement. To do this, however, you must view at least 80% of the units and take part in the associated quizzes.
• Special feature: You can complete some MOOCs with a presence test. If you pass, you will receive up to 6 ECTS, which can generally be credited to a university degree. So far, no other German MOOC provider has this option.

German MOOCs at OpenCourseWorld

The OpenCourseWorld MOOC offer comes from IMC AG, which works closely with German universities such as TU Munich.

• The MOOC platform OpenCourseWorld is not limited to any special area, but offers many different courses. These include topics such as IT security, the creation of Windows Store apps and "media literacy for teachers".
• New course modules are activated weekly. These are instructional videos and scripts as well as homework and tests. In total, there are usually 6-7 modules per online course, for which you should plan around 4 hours each.
• The OpenCourseWorld offer is also free and freely accessible. Completion certificates are, however, subject to a fee.
• The cost of a certificate is 95 euros per MOOC. As a student, you pay the reduced price of 45 euros.

Coursera: International MOOC provider

Coursera is one of the best-known platforms in the international arena. The course topics are also very diverse here - from law, to natural sciences, to computer science.

• The offer is made available by a total of 108 partner universities from 19 countries. The partners include the elite universities Stanford, Princeton and Yale. From Germany, the TU Munich and the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich are involved.
• The MOOCs at Coursera are mostly held in English, but Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian and occasionally German are also available.
• From Germany you can also participate free of charge without certain access requirements.
• At the end, depending on the course, you will receive a certificate of attendance or a fee-based certificate from the respective university.

In addition to MOOCs, there are other options for continuing education online. We'll show you where to learn programming online or learn foreign languages ​​online for free.