Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) (remote asynchronous)
—“I don’t believe in flashy items in a MOOC, to make it interesting and avoid making it boring. I deeply believe that the spark should come from within the content, and the pedagogy. That really makes us stand apart from other developers; we truly engage with your content from the inside out, and co-create it with you”. Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc), director, independent senior advisor
RECEIVE A CALL TO DISCOVER MORE
Are you curious for more? Would you like to get in touch? Feel free to contact our director directly for any questions or inquiries you may have. Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc) tikvah@studioblended.com +31 6 42 47 29 6
Are you and your research team part of a (European) Research Program, with an imperative to disseminate your outcomes and outputs to the wider public?
Would you like to explore whether there is a businesscase to creating and running a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for your Education?
Or perhaps you are interested in writing a proposal (at European level), such as for the New European Bauhaus Academy?
Allow us to come alongside you, and partner with you to explore, visualise, and realise a succesful MOOC that is resilient - and stands the test of time - by design.
—
A MOOC takes your knowledge domain into a learning platform online, and is accessible for learners worldwide, who can obtain a certificate issued by your institute. Depending on your ambition, we are talking about some 5,000 to tens of thousands of learners over a couple of years - but you may also want to actually have a smaller impactful scope.
‘MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) offer a powerful and flexible channel to disseminate’ European program results (such as ERC) ‘to a wider public, within the international scientific community and in the larger societal environment’ (MOOCS4Europe 2017).‘ ‘The creation of a common space for research has represented a pillar of European Union political action since its birth. Research projects financed under the European umbrella have both strongly impacted on the European cultural landscape and responded to pressing societal challenges’ (MOOCS4Europe 2017).
The Anacapri manifesto states (MOOCs4Europe 2017): ‘MOOCs represent that media mix [that the ERC wants in dissemination] at its best, through open access top quality courses, MOOCs combine the reputational factor of outstanding scientific research with an extremely successful multimedia format, which has become rapidly familiar to tens of millions of learners worldwide.’
A MOOC can also complement and invigorate existing education. For example, in combining campus learning with online learning, by offering blended approaches. See for example the Erasmus exchange programs (so called Blended Intensive Programs). Or a MOOC can invigorate existing education by offering complete modules online such as done on EdX. In this case, we are looking at executive education, with a certain fee for enrollment in the course.
2012 Is often marked as the start of European MOOCs, even as, they never soared as high as in the US, simply also because our way of financing students is quite differently. Even so, ‘they have been a disruptive innovation in the academic environment in Europe’ (MOOCs4Europe 2017).
Ever since 2012, MOOCs have experienced their own hype cycle and what we see is that the original concept, of reaching thousands of students, is no longer here. The market is simply too saturated. The original idea, of the world at your feet, the sheer scale of dissemination of your ideas and education, is not the reality in Europe (see i.e. Helsdingen and Wild 2024).
So, what makes the MOOCs interesting today? The concept of self-paced learning, in an asynchronous way, is a valuable basis for all kinds of forms. For example, MOOCs offer a beautiful testing ground, for free experimenations. That’s where the attractiveness of the MOOC remains (see i.e. Helsdingen and Wild 2024).
The possibilities for experimentation are infinate. For example, you can use a MOOC as a form of onboarding; to first activate prior knowledge and consolidate new students’ basic knowledge on certain issues before they embark on your university course.
Or you can try to reach new language targetgroups, now that AI allows you to instantly translate/transcript your videos.
Or, you can join a wider European community of universities, to give momentum to a certain pressing matter of sustainability, such as done by the New European Bauhaus Academy.
The MOOC is an excellent opportunity to create very high quality products/modules, and can be developed to maximalise its usage, not just for the MOOC itself, but also into other courses, advertisement/marketing, lectures and beyond into dissemination, client work and usages you cannot even begin to imagine yet now.
Creating a good MOOC requires an investment. We should always stay aware that a MOOC is a course, it is not about simply copying content to an online framework or dropbox where learners move from video to video. There are a lot of bad examples out there, especially if researchers approach the MOOC merely from their content perspective, and not as experts in designing a learning journey.
Allow us to come alongside you, and partner with you.
—
At STUDIOBLENDED we work strikingly differently than educational advisors you may be used to. We do not merely take your content, and then translate it into digital online learning.
We go over and above. Partnering with you, we transform the content from the inside out and then create resilient education that stands the test of time. It’s really a whole different approach.
STUDIOBLENDED stands out by offering you a fully modular curriculum design. We will always encourage you to go modular. What is your ambition for your investment? A modular approach allows you to capitalise on your investment, because you can use modules from the MOOC in other education or settings as well. This quality is only possible though, if you design for it.
We are on the lookout for a pedagogy that resonates with your content. We only work bespoke for you as a client, we never copy paste solutions.
We work with high quality, and maximum simplicity. We come alongside you as an external indepenent senior advisor, and partner with you to get things done. We have robust experience in project management within academia.
Content-wise, we go through the following stages:
- Design Studio
- Development Journey
Executive-wise, we offer you the following qualities, as needed:
- Strategic leadership - helping you envision, and take decisions
- Advise on operational oversight - advising on the daily operations across the departments and freelancers
- Advise on financial management - we draft budgets, advise on critical investments, and on financial health
- Advise on risk management - we identify risks that could impact the institution, and offer possible alternatives
- Team leadership - we actively promote and foster a healthy team throughout the execution of the project
- External representation - we operate professionaly with all relevant stakeholders.
—
Duration: typically it takes some 6-9 months with a client, to realise a MOOC as it includes many steps and also because a MOOC is a highly curated end product. Much depends also on the envisioned studyload, and whether the end product is an intensive (technical) university executive course with a considerable fee, or a lighter, open access course to the broader public.
For whom: a MOOC is a collaborative effort with a course content team - such as professors, lecturing/research staff - and your own project management staff and - if applicable - project officers for the European grant.
Price: the price for designing and developing a MOOC for 6-8 weeks ranges between €25.000 and €50.000 excl VAT depending on your needs, and on your in-house capacity. If you are aspiring for a “mini MOOC” we can costumise prices for you.
Apart from that, we will work with a freelance filmmaker, and - if relevant - graphic design and/or an editor. Trade-offs are also essential here, such as with a low-tech high value MOOC versus a high quality one with a lot of film material as filming is the second largest cost. We offer competitive prices with our highly qualified and talented filmmakers.
Keeping the MOOC ‘in the air’, requires an annually recurring cost for the platform, which is around €3000.
The price is however part of a longer term businesscase, where learners also pay for access to the course or for the certificate. Over time it is possible to get your investment back, depending on the platform you choose and marketing/communication capacity. We can advise on the businesscase for you.
It is essential to also bear in mind the internal costs, such as in the dedicated time by the content staff, especially the decision-makers that sign off content. Video production is another important time dedication for all involved. Creating a MOOC moreover requires a lot of ongoing communication throughout.
Once the MOOC is ‘live’, depending on the educational design, you may need to include some teaching time or time to update following how the learners are performing, or to fix broken ‘links’ for example.
Language: English, but other languages are possible, especially with AI.
Location: we work hybrid with you as a client, on location and remotely, as the work demands.
—
Our senior advisors expect to have an equal partner relationship with the client’s main focal point (i.e. a coordinator and the head of research in charge of signing off content), whereby client and advisor work together, combining the advisor’s specialist knowledge with relevant knowledge about the content, the organisation and access to the relevant departments.
Shared responsibility and joint decision making for the sake of ownership, allow the success and relevance of the identified outcomes and outputs.
—
For this MOOC, we first started out with a Design Studio. The curriculum design in that way, is mindful of the hype cycle of big ideas so that the MOOC is expected to be relevant up to 5-10 years. The curriculum is also designed in a modular way, so that modules can be used in other Education as well.
For the videos we collaborated closely with a filmmaker from our pool of freelancers.
STUDIOBLENDED brought in a strong project management component. We also helped scope the right MOOC platform, to ensure continued open access education as required under the European subsidy, and sufficient revenue to finance continuation over time.
European funded program.
More information follows soon.
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—
As early as 2013, the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam, was interested in how to approach their capacity development trainings as a product.
Upon invitation by the head of Education, Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc) (then staff member) delivers a proposal called ‘Training as a product - A suggestion’.
With open building Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc) draws heavily from her Master thesis on open building and incremental housing in architecture (see Erasmus University repository, cum laude).
The proposal includes a strong element of a robust curriculum that stands the test of time - by design, through a technical ‘fit for purpose framework’. It is also completely modular.
The proposal dates back to 2014, but is still decade strong and relevant today, and resonates in all our technical and modular design. It’s simply how we visualise good education.
—
Interested to learn more about technical resilience of the curriculum of your course, degree or program?
Feel free to contact us directly for a free brainstorm session. Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc) tikvah@studioblended.com +31 6 42 47 29 69
—
—
Image: analogy of open building used in proposal to IHS by Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc). Visualisation of primary, secondary and tertiary systems within the built (learning) environment. Source: Geiser 2006 in Osman 2010:244.
Timo Kos Delft University of Technology, Catherine Mongenet France Université Numerique, Shimshon, G., Imperial College, London
Bruno Siciliano University of Naples Federico II, Ludwig-Maximilians, M.W., University, München
Helsdingen, A and Wild, U. (2025) ‘Learning without borders: The Future of MOOCs in Europe’. Workshop. Ninth European MOOCs stakeholders Summit 2025, June 30. Available: https://emoocs2025.telecom-paris.fr/program-of-the-conference/ (Accessed: October 27, 2025). Enriched with a 1 on 1 talk over ZOOM with U. Wild, autumn 2025.
Osman, A. and Sebake, N. (2010), ‘“Time” as a key factor in design and technical decision-making: concepts of accessibility, affordability, participation, choice, variety and change in the South African Housing sector’, Human Settlements Review, Vol 1, No 1, pp. 236-252. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368555871_Upgrading_informal_settlements_in_South_Africa_A_partnership-based_approach (Accessed: October 27, 2025).
Shah, 2025. The Day MOOCs truly died: Coursera’s preview mode Kills Free learning. The report, July 28.
Shah, D. (2018) ‘EdX Puts Up a paywall for Graded Assignments’. The report, Dec 17. Available: https://www.classcentral.com/report/coursera-preview-mode-paywall/ (Accessed: October 27, 2025).
Wild, U. and Gimbrere, M. (2017) ‘MOOCs: introducing flexibility in academia’. Proceedings of Work in Progress Papers of the Experience and Research Tracks and Position Papers of the Policy Track at EMOOCs 2017 co-located with the EMOOCs 2017 Conference. CEUR Workshop Proceedings. Aachen: Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen. Available: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1841/P07_111.pdf (Accessed: October 27, 2025).
Resilient education that stands the test of time - by design.
Would you like to explore whether there is a businesscase to creating and running a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for your Education?
Or perhaps you are interested in writing a proposal (at European level), such as for the New European Bauhaus Academy?
Allow us to come alongside you, and partner with you to explore, visualise, and realise a succesful MOOC that is resilient - and stands the test of time - by design.
—
Transformation
A MOOC is a course that is (in principle) completely unfacilitated, and asynchronous - students can follow it at any time, in whatever pace they wish, and there is no actual presence of teachers.A MOOC takes your knowledge domain into a learning platform online, and is accessible for learners worldwide, who can obtain a certificate issued by your institute. Depending on your ambition, we are talking about some 5,000 to tens of thousands of learners over a couple of years - but you may also want to actually have a smaller impactful scope.
‘MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) offer a powerful and flexible channel to disseminate’ European program results (such as ERC) ‘to a wider public, within the international scientific community and in the larger societal environment’ (MOOCS4Europe 2017).‘ ‘The creation of a common space for research has represented a pillar of European Union political action since its birth. Research projects financed under the European umbrella have both strongly impacted on the European cultural landscape and responded to pressing societal challenges’ (MOOCS4Europe 2017).
The Anacapri manifesto states (MOOCs4Europe 2017): ‘MOOCs represent that media mix [that the ERC wants in dissemination] at its best, through open access top quality courses, MOOCs combine the reputational factor of outstanding scientific research with an extremely successful multimedia format, which has become rapidly familiar to tens of millions of learners worldwide.’
A MOOC can also complement and invigorate existing education. For example, in combining campus learning with online learning, by offering blended approaches. See for example the Erasmus exchange programs (so called Blended Intensive Programs). Or a MOOC can invigorate existing education by offering complete modules online such as done on EdX. In this case, we are looking at executive education, with a certain fee for enrollment in the course.
2012 Is often marked as the start of European MOOCs, even as, they never soared as high as in the US, simply also because our way of financing students is quite differently. Even so, ‘they have been a disruptive innovation in the academic environment in Europe’ (MOOCs4Europe 2017).
Ever since 2012, MOOCs have experienced their own hype cycle and what we see is that the original concept, of reaching thousands of students, is no longer here. The market is simply too saturated. The original idea, of the world at your feet, the sheer scale of dissemination of your ideas and education, is not the reality in Europe (see i.e. Helsdingen and Wild 2024).
So, what makes the MOOCs interesting today? The concept of self-paced learning, in an asynchronous way, is a valuable basis for all kinds of forms. For example, MOOCs offer a beautiful testing ground, for free experimenations. That’s where the attractiveness of the MOOC remains (see i.e. Helsdingen and Wild 2024).
The possibilities for experimentation are infinate. For example, you can use a MOOC as a form of onboarding; to first activate prior knowledge and consolidate new students’ basic knowledge on certain issues before they embark on your university course.
Or you can try to reach new language targetgroups, now that AI allows you to instantly translate/transcript your videos.
Or, you can join a wider European community of universities, to give momentum to a certain pressing matter of sustainability, such as done by the New European Bauhaus Academy.
The MOOC is an excellent opportunity to create very high quality products/modules, and can be developed to maximalise its usage, not just for the MOOC itself, but also into other courses, advertisement/marketing, lectures and beyond into dissemination, client work and usages you cannot even begin to imagine yet now.
Creating a good MOOC requires an investment. We should always stay aware that a MOOC is a course, it is not about simply copying content to an online framework or dropbox where learners move from video to video. There are a lot of bad examples out there, especially if researchers approach the MOOC merely from their content perspective, and not as experts in designing a learning journey.
Allow us to come alongside you, and partner with you.
—
Program with you as course/degree/program director
At STUDIOBLENDED we work strikingly differently than educational advisors you may be used to. We do not merely take your content, and then translate it into digital online learning.
We go over and above. Partnering with you, we transform the content from the inside out and then create resilient education that stands the test of time. It’s really a whole different approach.
STUDIOBLENDED stands out by offering you a fully modular curriculum design. We will always encourage you to go modular. What is your ambition for your investment? A modular approach allows you to capitalise on your investment, because you can use modules from the MOOC in other education or settings as well. This quality is only possible though, if you design for it.
We are on the lookout for a pedagogy that resonates with your content. We only work bespoke for you as a client, we never copy paste solutions.
We work with high quality, and maximum simplicity. We come alongside you as an external indepenent senior advisor, and partner with you to get things done. We have robust experience in project management within academia.
Content-wise, we go through the following stages:
- Design Studio
- Development Journey
Executive-wise, we offer you the following qualities, as needed:
- Strategic leadership - helping you envision, and take decisions
- Advise on operational oversight - advising on the daily operations across the departments and freelancers
- Advise on financial management - we draft budgets, advise on critical investments, and on financial health
- Advise on risk management - we identify risks that could impact the institution, and offer possible alternatives
- Team leadership - we actively promote and foster a healthy team throughout the execution of the project
- External representation - we operate professionaly with all relevant stakeholders.
—
Facts and figures
Startingdate: we align this with you.Duration: typically it takes some 6-9 months with a client, to realise a MOOC as it includes many steps and also because a MOOC is a highly curated end product. Much depends also on the envisioned studyload, and whether the end product is an intensive (technical) university executive course with a considerable fee, or a lighter, open access course to the broader public.
For whom: a MOOC is a collaborative effort with a course content team - such as professors, lecturing/research staff - and your own project management staff and - if applicable - project officers for the European grant.
Price: the price for designing and developing a MOOC for 6-8 weeks ranges between €25.000 and €50.000 excl VAT depending on your needs, and on your in-house capacity. If you are aspiring for a “mini MOOC” we can costumise prices for you.
Apart from that, we will work with a freelance filmmaker, and - if relevant - graphic design and/or an editor. Trade-offs are also essential here, such as with a low-tech high value MOOC versus a high quality one with a lot of film material as filming is the second largest cost. We offer competitive prices with our highly qualified and talented filmmakers.
Keeping the MOOC ‘in the air’, requires an annually recurring cost for the platform, which is around €3000.
The price is however part of a longer term businesscase, where learners also pay for access to the course or for the certificate. Over time it is possible to get your investment back, depending on the platform you choose and marketing/communication capacity. We can advise on the businesscase for you.
It is essential to also bear in mind the internal costs, such as in the dedicated time by the content staff, especially the decision-makers that sign off content. Video production is another important time dedication for all involved. Creating a MOOC moreover requires a lot of ongoing communication throughout.
Once the MOOC is ‘live’, depending on the educational design, you may need to include some teaching time or time to update following how the learners are performing, or to fix broken ‘links’ for example.
Language: English, but other languages are possible, especially with AI.
Location: we work hybrid with you as a client, on location and remotely, as the work demands.
—
RECEIVE A CALL TO DISCOVER MORE
Partnering
We come alongside a client, and operate as equal partners throughout the project duration of an advisory assignment.Our senior advisors expect to have an equal partner relationship with the client’s main focal point (i.e. a coordinator and the head of research in charge of signing off content), whereby client and advisor work together, combining the advisor’s specialist knowledge with relevant knowledge about the content, the organisation and access to the relevant departments.
Shared responsibility and joint decision making for the sake of ownership, allow the success and relevance of the identified outcomes and outputs.
—
Key projects
STUDIOBLENDED is currently working on the realisation of an impactful MOOC for an institute for capacity development within a European University (March 2025 - March 2026). The challenge of this client is transforming the scope of the 4 year research program, into a scope for a playful, light yet superintersting learning journey (9 studyhours) and develop it into a succesful MOOC.For this MOOC, we first started out with a Design Studio. The curriculum design in that way, is mindful of the hype cycle of big ideas so that the MOOC is expected to be relevant up to 5-10 years. The curriculum is also designed in a modular way, so that modules can be used in other Education as well.
For the videos we collaborated closely with a filmmaker from our pool of freelancers.
STUDIOBLENDED brought in a strong project management component. We also helped scope the right MOOC platform, to ensure continued open access education as required under the European subsidy, and sufficient revenue to finance continuation over time.
European funded program.
More information follows soon.
—
TRAINING AS A PRODUCT WITH AN OPEN BUILDING FRAMEWORK
As early as 2013, the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam, was interested in how to approach their capacity development trainings as a product.
Upon invitation by the head of Education, Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc) (then staff member) delivers a proposal called ‘Training as a product - A suggestion’.
With open building Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc) draws heavily from her Master thesis on open building and incremental housing in architecture (see Erasmus University repository, cum laude).
The proposal includes a strong element of a robust curriculum that stands the test of time - by design, through a technical ‘fit for purpose framework’. It is also completely modular.
The proposal dates back to 2014, but is still decade strong and relevant today, and resonates in all our technical and modular design. It’s simply how we visualise good education.
—
Interested to learn more about technical resilience of the curriculum of your course, degree or program?
Feel free to contact us directly for a free brainstorm session. Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc) tikvah@studioblended.com +31 6 42 47 29 69
—
RECEIVE A CALL TO DISCOVER MORE
—
Image: analogy of open building used in proposal to IHS by Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc). Visualisation of primary, secondary and tertiary systems within the built (learning) environment. Source: Geiser 2006 in Osman 2010:244.References
MOOC4Europe (2017) ‘Anicapri Manifesto’ (available upon request). A collaborative expression by the following representatives : Calise, M., University of Naples Federico II, Kloos, C.D. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Pierre Dillenbourg Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Helsdingen, A.S., Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Hesse, F.W. Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) Karlsson, G. Royal Institute of Technology, StockholmTimo Kos Delft University of Technology, Catherine Mongenet France Université Numerique, Shimshon, G., Imperial College, London
Bruno Siciliano University of Naples Federico II, Ludwig-Maximilians, M.W., University, München
Helsdingen, A and Wild, U. (2025) ‘Learning without borders: The Future of MOOCs in Europe’. Workshop. Ninth European MOOCs stakeholders Summit 2025, June 30. Available: https://emoocs2025.telecom-paris.fr/program-of-the-conference/ (Accessed: October 27, 2025). Enriched with a 1 on 1 talk over ZOOM with U. Wild, autumn 2025.
Osman, A. and Sebake, N. (2010), ‘“Time” as a key factor in design and technical decision-making: concepts of accessibility, affordability, participation, choice, variety and change in the South African Housing sector’, Human Settlements Review, Vol 1, No 1, pp. 236-252. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368555871_Upgrading_informal_settlements_in_South_Africa_A_partnership-based_approach (Accessed: October 27, 2025).
Shah, 2025. The Day MOOCs truly died: Coursera’s preview mode Kills Free learning. The report, July 28.
Shah, D. (2018) ‘EdX Puts Up a paywall for Graded Assignments’. The report, Dec 17. Available: https://www.classcentral.com/report/coursera-preview-mode-paywall/ (Accessed: October 27, 2025).
Wild, U. and Gimbrere, M. (2017) ‘MOOCs: introducing flexibility in academia’. Proceedings of Work in Progress Papers of the Experience and Research Tracks and Position Papers of the Policy Track at EMOOCs 2017 co-located with the EMOOCs 2017 Conference. CEUR Workshop Proceedings. Aachen: Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen. Available: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1841/P07_111.pdf (Accessed: October 27, 2025).
Resilient education that stands the test of time - by design.
Prefer to have direct contact?
Feel free to contact us directly
Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc)
Independent senior advisor, teacher trainer, director.
tikvah@studioblended.com
+31 6 42 47 29 69
STUDIOBLENDED Non Profit Foundation
Registration Chamber of Commerce
KvK-number 86242598 (Dutch)
VAT identification number
NL 86 39 07 29 5 B01
Bankaccount
NL40 INGB 0709 6156 04
SWIFT/BIC: INGBNL2A
StudioBlended Foundation
Feel free to contact us directly
Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc)
Independent senior advisor, teacher trainer, director.
tikvah@studioblended.com
+31 6 42 47 29 69
RECEIVE A CALL TO DISCOVER MORE
STUDIOBLENDED Non Profit Foundation
Registration Chamber of Commerce
KvK-number 86242598 (Dutch)
VAT identification number
NL 86 39 07 29 5 B01
Bankaccount
NL40 INGB 0709 6156 04
SWIFT/BIC: INGBNL2A
StudioBlended Foundation
