Class Central

MOOC aggregator and discovery platform that connects learners to online courses based on their interests

Overview

Class Central is a free directory of online university courses that helps users find and track MOOCs. Dhawal Shah first founded Class Central in late 2011 as a way to keep track of the online classes from different universities that he wanted to take. Each university lists courses on its own website, and Shah wanted one page where he could sort every course by its start date. Shah sees Class Central as, "an ecosystem around MOOCs that will guide learners towards their educational goals."

Users can browse a list of courses that are starting soon, or they can search for courses by keyword or subject area. Once they've identified a course to take, they can click the "Go to Class" button, which sends them directly to the website where that course is hosted. If users want to save information on courses to take later, they can sign up for a Class Central account, which allows them to build a personalized catalogue of courses organized by interest level, completion status, subject category, and course language. If users add courses to their catalogue that aren't currently offered, Class Central will notify them when a class is being offered again. Users can also rate and review the courses they've taken, and read user feedback to help decide which courses to take.