The number of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, offered worldwide grew by more than 2,000 in the past academic year. The nature of MOOCs is changing, with more courses being self-paced, instead of starting and ending on specific dates, and more sitting at least partly behind a paywall. Courses may require payment for completion certificates, credits, grading of assignments, and test taking.
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| October 2011 | 3 |
| June 2012 | 34 |
| December 2012 | 108 |
| June 2013 | 446 |
| December 2013 | 859 |
| June 2014 | 1,524 |
| December 2014 | 2,090 |
| June 2015 | 2,940 |
| December 2015 | 4,007 |
| June 2016 | 5,397 |
| December 2016 | 6,563 |
| June 2017 | 7,465 |
Note: The number of massive open online courses is tracked by Class Central, a search engine for online courses and MOOCs. Each course is counted only once, no matter how many times it was offered. Both short-term courses and those following a traditional semester-long model are counted. Courses from selected international MOOC providers like XuetangX (China), FUN (France), Miríada X (Spain), and MéxicoX are included in the data except for the first half of 2017. Figures from international sources were unavailable for that time period. More data on MOOCs are available at https://www.class-central.com/report/mooc-stats-2016.
Source: Class Central
