

We also looked for platforms with breadth that is, they cover either a wide array of subjects or all the topics that are central to a specific area. First, we wanted to be sure that the platform was authoritative-whether that means an affiliation with a reputable institution of higher learning or instructors with impressive experience levels. Now, courses come in all shapes and sizes, with different levels of interactivity, instructor engagement, and commitment required.Īs we evaluated various platforms, we looked for several things.

Then, they were generally free and offered unlimited enrollment (hence the "massive" and "open"). Online professional development has come a long way since Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, took off in 2012. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software.
