This piece is a response to Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz’s article “Online Courses seek a Business Model” in the Wall Street Journal.

If you were told of a MOOC that had 1.5 million learners and 250,000 graduates worldwide, the names Coursera and Udacity would probably come to mind. What if I told you this MOOC was founded in 2007, has over 20,000 favorable testimonials on its website, is based out of Ireland, and is profitably educating millions for free? Would you know who I am talking about?

In contrast with celebrity MOOCs who are struggling for business models — and yet have raised millions of dollars in funding — ALISON has become successful with less than $2 million in capital. It is growing faster than ever.

Unlike newer MOOCs, ALISON doesn’t seek to educate the elite. Instead, it focuses on the working class, students who may never have gotten the chance to attend college and who need to develop certain skills. It caters to people marginalized from basic education and training, especially those in developing world countries.

With learners in every country worldwide, ALISON’s business model might suggest where others might go to in time; it is supported by advertisements. After all, if advertising can support the development of radio and television, why not education?

A wonderfully equitable aspect of advertising-supported education, as founder Mike Feerick explains, is that when someone clicks on an ad on ALISON while studying basic accounting in Yemen, Indonesia or India, the income is next to zero. When an American in California clicks on an ad, however, he or she pays for the next hundred students in those countries. The challenge, says Feerick, is that his content must be of high-interest to the learner in USA. It’s a challenge he and his team are very willing to accept.

As I travel around the world, I come across innovators in education from all different countries. Many of them have international impact: ALISON, for example, has 200,000 learners in the USA. Although not high-profile, they are making an impact all the same, and with a free certification system that really should get more attention. Celebrity MOOCs are great, but there are some less-tinseled MOOCs out there that we can learn a lot from – in more ways than one!

ALISON stands for "Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online"

ALISON.com is revolutionising global education and training through the provision of free interactive multimedia basic education and workplace skills training courses with certification online. With two million registered learners worldwide, courses on ALISON are freely available from well-known multinational organisations to individual subject-matter-experts. Irish-based ALISON was founded in 2007 as a for-profit social enterprise.

What People are saying about ALISON

InformationWeek.com “The first MOOC”
UnCollege.org “As a pioneer in free online learning, we can learn from ALISON in more ways than one”
New York Times “A creative model of open education for a global economy”
Newsday “A powerful program that is unlocking new worlds of opportunity for people around the globe”
Wired Academic “A key figure in the open source learning world”
EIN News “ALISON wins USA Workforce Training Award”
DUIS: UK GOVT “ALISON opens up the world of knowledge offering new, flexible, and exciting ways to learn”

For further information, please contact Tracy Hadnett, Marketing Communications Manager
Email: thadnett@alison.com
Galway, Ireland
Tel: +353-91-744594 Mob: +353 87 7866302