Give MOOCs some credit: a system-divergent innovation accrediting an AI mass-market MOOC at a Swedish university

Journal article, 2025

Lifelong learning in higher education (HE), epitomised by Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), is valuable for re-skilling and upskilling Sweden's industry workforce in (advanced) digital competencies to remain globally innovative and competitive. Meanwhile, Sweden's non-regulatory approach towards MOOC deployment in HE meant that their accreditation by universities faces strenuous systemic challenges. However, since 2019, one university began accrediting an AI mass-market MOOC following a nationally unique system-divergent innovation, which this case study unpacks by responding to three research questions. First, what were the underlying processes of this system-divergent innovation, and how and why did it occur? Second, what were its key success factors? Furthermore, how sustainable is it? This reflexive case study draws on eight semi-structured interviews with university staff and faculty, which were deductively analysed based on topical literature and concepts from system-divergent innovation and structuration theory. Generated themes were called challenges-as-opportunities and spanned bureaucracy, finances, technological infrastructures, deroutinisation, internal conflicts and external pressure. These themes and their discussion inform policy on three tiers: governmental, sectoral, and institutional. This original work highlights that mmMOOCs' accreditation by universities can play a significant role in bridging lifelong learning and HE in Sweden, and calls for digital maturity and national contagion.