The University of Oxford has announced the launch of its first ‘massive open online course’, or MOOC, in collaboration with two Ivy League institutions.

Using edX, the online educational platform established by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University has begun enrolling students for an economics course entitled ‘From Poverty to Prosperity: Understanding Economic Development’, due to be launched in February next year.

The course, which will be free to all, will examine the role of governments in the economic growth of developing countries, and will be led by Sir Paul Collier, a Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford, and Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University’s Blavatnik School of Government.

The Dean of Blavatnik, Ngaire Woods, said that she hoped that the online course would be “an effective way to expand access to knowledge beyond the classrooms of Oxford”. The six-week course will be aimed primarily at university students, government and NGO employees, and education and business professionals, but will require no prior qualifications. All course materials, including video lectures, case studies, readings, and multiple choice questions, will continue to be available after the course has been completed.

MOOC courses have, in recent years, emerged as a major phenomenon in higher education. As of this year, the edX platform alone boasted more than nine million learners, spread across over 900 courses, with many more available on other platforms such as Coursera or the UK-based FutureLearn, which first appeared in 2012. The CEO of edX Anant Agarwal praised Oxford for offering “access to an innovative programme that offers insights from a range of academic disciplines and a strong global outlook”.

Supporters have praised MOOC for improving access to education, as most courses are free and require no resources other than an internet connection. However, concerns over high dropout rates (estimated at greater than 90 per cent), and doubt over the viability of offering accredited qualifications for online courses have led some to suggest that academia may become “MOOC’d out”.

Even so, the first completely MOOC-based Master’s degree was offered by the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2013, and it has been suggested that MOOCs may eventually be used by universities to offer distance-learning undergraduate degrees similar to those offered by the Open University.

It is hoped that Oxford’s involvement will add to the credibility of MOOC courses, which have yet to achieve the popularity in the UK that they have in the US. Professor Sarah Whatmore, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at Oxford, said: “This collaboration will build capacity for the design and delivery of a range of other online education experiences as the University progresses its Digital Education Strategy. Oxford already has a strong reputation for delivering open educational resources that are used by students, academics and the public worldwide.”