MOOCs an "Innovation Looking for a Business Model"

WHO'S GOT THE TAB? The Wall Street Journal (finally?) considers the question of how Udacity, Coursera, edX, and others are going to address that pesky question of monetization. (The article also offers the latest enrollment numbers for their most popular courses.) While we've mentioned before about plans to charge employers a headhunting and referral fee, the article reports that Coursera matched "only a handful of students," while Udacity has "placed just about 20 students so far" with the 350 companies that have signed up. Other options include content licensing, hosting sponsored classes from companies like Google and Autodesk, or partnering with the likes of Pearson to offer proctored exams for certification. Given the small percentage of students who actually complete a course, though, its questionable how much moolah this last option can really bring in. Still, investors somehow remain "optimistic the math will work out eventually."