edX Nixes Plan to Connect MOOC Participants with Employers

column | MOOCs

edX Nixes Plan to Connect MOOC Participants with Employers

Dec 16, 2013

DROP IT LIKE IT'S BOTCHED: After a yearlong pilot, MOOC-provider edX announced discontinuation of its job-placement program after MOOC users failed to land any jobs. Originally, edX recruited 868 high-performing students from two computer science MOOCs at the University of California, Berkeley. After attempting to match these students to tech companies (including Google and Amazon), only three students received job interviews--and none of them were hired. As a result, edX decided to abandon its decision to provide job-placement services. Outcomes from the pilot were presented at a private edX meeting last month, and the Chronicle of Higher Education acquired slides from the presentation detailing likely reasons for the results ("Existing HR departments want to go for traditional degree programs and filter out nontraditional candidates," according to one slide).

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