Creating pathways to higher education: A cross-disciplinary MOOC with graduate credit

This paper presents the development and deployment of an education model based on massive open online courses (MOOC). In this model, a MOOC is offered with “free” academic credit to those participants who successfully complete the course and subsequently matriculate into a degree-seeking program. As a part of this initiative, a pilot MOOC on Innovation and Design Thinking was developed and offered in fall 2013. This MOOC is a cross-disciplinary course that delivers integrated content from two different fields, namely, engineering and business. In this paper, we discuss the goals of our “MOOC to degree” program, attributes of the first MOOC, development and implementation of the program, and preliminary assessment of the course's reach and impact on the learners and educators from around the world.