WURMP 2021: Methodology

MoocLab's World University Rankings by MOOC Performance (WURMP) 2021 are the only global performance tables that judge universities on their provision of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). First launched in 2019, these rankings evaluate institutions offering courses on the three leading MOOC platforms - Coursera, edX and FutureLearn.

The WURMP 2021 include 200 universities covering 34 different countries across the world with 255 universities evaluated in total.

For information on MOOCs, see MoocLab's MOOC Help Centre.

The WURMP serve two main purposes:

• To provide performance information and comparisons to potential students across the core areas of university MOOC activity
• To allow Universities to evaluate their MOOC performance, set strategic goals and enhance their MOOC-based offering

The basic methodology for this year’s rankings is similar to that employed in the 2019-2020 tables, but the 2021 rankings give additional weight to course programs that grant transferable credit. This decision was taken in response to the increase in both the number and recognition of such programs globally.

The results are based on the following 5 performance indicators that measure an institution’s MOOC performance*:

• Number of MOOCs (10%)
• Number of Course Programs (15%)
• Number of Course Programs bearing credit (20%)
• Number of MOOC-based degrees (20%)
• Average world ranking (35%)

*Data for the WURMP 2021 was recorded before the end of December 2020. Any new courses, programs or degrees launched after the collection of data are not included.

Number of MOOCs

The number of MOOCs were recorded for each institution offering courses across the three main MOOC platforms - Coursera, edX and FutureLearn.

Number of Course Programs

Course programs consist of a series of related courses to provide learners with more in-depth learning of a particular subject or skill. Such programs are available on all three MOOC platforms in the form of "Specializations" and "Professional Certificates" on Coursera, "XSeries" and "Professional Certificates" on edX and "Programs" on FutureLearn. The number of Course Programs were recorded for each institution offering these programs across the three main MOOC platforms - Coursera, edX and FutureLearn.

Number of Course Programs bearing credit

Some course programs offer the possibility to earn transferable credit. These programs are components of degrees that can stack to a Bachelor’s degree or count toward a Master’s degree, or may offer professional accreditation. Examples are the MasterTrack™ on Coursera, MicroMasters® and MicroBachelors® on edX and "Microcredentials" and some "Programs" on FutureLearn. The number of credit-granting programs were recorded for each institution offering these programs across the three main MOOC platforms - Coursera, edX and FutureLearn.

Number of MOOC-Based Degrees

MOOC-based degrees offer a more affordable (and more flexible) alternative to on-campus degrees as well as other online degree programs. They also have the advantage of being "stackable" as they are built on MOOCs and/or MOOC-based micro-credentials. The number of MOOC-based degrees were recorded for each institution offering these programs across the three main MOOC platforms - Coursera, edX and FutureLearn.

Average world ranking

World university rankings can be used as an indicator of a university's prospects and prestige. Ranking publishers use different performance indicators such as teaching quality, research quality or the ratio of staff to students to place higher education institutions in order of success and impact. Results across the different rankings will vary according to the measures used and the importance they place on the different performance indicators. The average world university ranking performance indicator is based on the mean score obtained from three of the most trusted World University Rankings: Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE), QS World University Rankings (QS) and Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

Exclusions

Universities offering less than 5 MOOCs at the time of data collection were excluded from the rankings.

Data sources

Data relating to MOOCs and MOOC-based credentials was collected directly from the three main MOOC platforms, Coursera, edX and FutureLearn. For the Average World Ranking, ranking scores were obtained from Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE), QS World University Rankings (QS) and Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) from which the mean score was then calculated.

Rank calculation

To calculate the ranks, the weighted composites of the Z-scores for the 5 individual measures were calculated (reverse coded when necessary) for each institution where the weights represent relative importance of the different measures. The institution with the highest score was given a rank of #1.

Browse the full results of the World University Rankings by MOOC Performance 2021