Update (April 2026): On April 9, shareholders of both companies voted overwhelmingly to approve the merger — 99.4%% at Coursera, 99.9%% at Udemy. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026. I also dug into the 300-page merger prospectus and found that Coursera approached Udemy three times over two years before getting a yes, and that Pluralsight’s owner made a competing cash offer. Read the full merger history. TL;DR Coursera is acquiring Udemy in an all-stock deal worth ~$1.8 b

Coursera’s flagship credentials may carry big brand names, but who’s actually creating the content?

In 2027, Duolingo is shutting down Duolingo for Schools, its free classroom tool that helped teachers track student progress and assign lessons. Coursera did the same thing last year, ending free course audits. It seemed sudden, but the signs were there. Class Central tracked the Duolingo for Schools shutdown too. And this time, the signs were all across social media platforms. Why the Shutdown? Duolingo for Schools was launched in 2015. Within a week, more than 10,000 teachers and 25,000 stud

To get an overview of the topics and trends in the research on MOOCs, Class Central has created a list of the most cited research papers on MOOCs.