Enrollment for one class surpasses the number of students on campus in Albuquerque with the launch of the first MOOC at UNM, Web Application Architectures, taught by Greg Heilemann, Associate Provost and Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor. 48,000 students enrolled in this MOOC from 195 countries — more countries than the United Nations recognizes as members — in its first offering in Spring 2014. Three MOOCs are offered in Fall 2014: Web Application Architecture’s second session, Curanderismo, and the Global Business Environment.
Curanderismo: Traditional Medicine is instructed by Eliseo “Cheo” Torres, Vice President for Student Affairs and Professor at UNM. Anderson School of Management Professor of Strategic Management Doug Thomas is teaching UNM’s first bilingual MOOC, the Global Business Environment, taught in English and Spanish.
UNM has been accepted as one of only eight US State Institution partners by Coursera, which works with top international institutions around the globe. Now, thousands of students in India, China and Europe know the UNM brand through the web architecture course. Thousands more have signed up for the Curanderismo course. MOOCs have proved to be an unexpectedly potent marketing tool.
Debby Knotts, the director of new media & extended learning for UNM said, “the biggest impact of the MOOCs has been to expand the reach of UNM. Now we need to leverage the MOOC environment to bring students into the university.”
The advent of MOOCs at UNM is a game-changer for UNM’s global reach and for the concept of online classes.