MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – provide one of the most innovative forms of learning. Available free via the Internet, learners can access didactic course materials and learn in close contact with other students by means of social media. Parties just beginning to familiarize themselves with information technology, as well as those who want to increase their knowledge of this rapidly developing field via MOOCs, have made the right decision to choose openHPI, the MOOC platform of Hasso Plattner Institute.

openHPI courses offer Internet knowledge through learning videos, interactive self-tests, tutorials, practical exercises and homework. This knowledge for the understanding and design of the new digital world is that provided to the students of HPI, Germany’s highly-ranked computer science institute.

openHPI courses are offered online in their entirety. All materials can be easily accessed by any device with an Internet connection, whether desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet.

openHPI courses are open: participation is free of charge and not restricted by any pre-requisites. The multifaceted interaction in the learning community turns openHPI courses into a learning event.

openHPI courses allow participants to learn in a large, virtual learning community with other course members. Lively discussion forums and virtual learning groups support exchange and collaborative learning.

Our Partners

Partners from business, politics, and international organizations build on the expertise of the openHPI team and use the state-of-the-art MOOC platform of the Hasso Plattner Institute to offer their own online courses:

Charité Berlin: Training courses for doctors and hospital staff



msg systems AG: a publicly-accessible course on digital transformation



National Academy of Science and Engineering: Own channel on mooc.house with publicly-accessible courses on economy-relevant topics such as industry 4.0, machine learning, and smart services



openSAP: First enterprise MOOC Platform, online since 2013



Signavio GmbH: Own mooc.house channel, with customer training offers in the use of the Signavio software



OpenWHO: Platform of the World Health Organization (WHO). Use case: Training of WHO staff and volunteers and information for the population affected by epidemics. Online since 2017.

The use cases for MOOCs are diverse: From staff training, to courses for partners or customers, to CSR practices. Here you can find further information: https://mooc.house.

Our Projects

KI-Campus: The aim of the BMBF project is to strengthen AI skills in Germany through digital learning opportunities at an academic level. For this purpose, the HPI is transforming its existing MOOC platform, which has been tried and tested for years, into an open source project and is expanding it by integrating AI-driven features in order to train and develop a broad spectrum of interested parties in Germany in the field of AI. The pilot online learning offers for AI are open to both students and lifelong learners.

CORSHIP - Corporate EDUpreneurship: The EU-funded CORSHIP project strives to establish a common language between companies, start-ups and universities and to promote their cooperation in Europe, in order to successfully exploit the full potential of corporate entrepreneurship across sectors and industries. As one of the 6 partners, the openHPI team is leading the development, implementation and evaluation of the MOOC "Corporate Entrepreneurship”.

BizMOOC: The BizMOOC project aims to strengthen innovation capacity in all parts of Europe through the creation of common standards and frameworks that promote MOOCs for workplace teaching & training, the acquisition of labour market-relevant skills and entrepreneurial activity.

Awards for our MOOC platforms

Visit our Team page to learn more about the people behind openHPI.

Our Offer

openHPI offers the interested public online courses with a diverse focus. A part of the courses targets a broad audience providing an introduction to the fundamentals of computer science and digital technologies. Topics include, for example, the workings of the Internet and the WWW, the building of databases, or security technology in IT. Other courses are aimed at a specialized audience. The objective of this course group is to familiarize participants with the latest innovations in computer science research, such as in-memory data management, the semantic web or, multicore and cloud computing. Workshops for learning programming languages such as Java or Python are also offered.

Course languages are German and English.

Participation Pays Off

Depending on prior knowledge, per course week three to six hours should generally be planned for the serious study of course material. This time is devoted to the learning videos, reading materials, and checking one’s progress with the provided self-tests, as well as active participation in the discussion forums. Upon successful completion of the homework and the online final test, participants receive a certificate from Hasso Plattner Institute.

Our customized, interactive online courses are geared towards:

Students and all others interested in IT topics and those who want to increase their knowledge of the digital world. High school and middle school pupils are also encouraged to participate in the courses.

Working professionals who want to improve and deepen their IT skills for work.

Those interested in furthering their career through knowledge of the latest IT technology.

MOOCs. A Summary

"openHPI - the MOOC-Offer of the Hasso Plattner Institute" (Technical Reports of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering, University of Potsdam | Nr. 80)

Scientific Support

Academic Papers 2013

Academic Papers 2014

Academic Papers 2015

Academic Papers 2016

Academic Papers 2017

Academic Papers 2018

Collaborative Learning in MOOCs - Approaches and Experiments

(Practical application of various forms of collaborative learning in MOOCs)

This page was last changed at Wed, 15 Jan 2020 09:36:37 +0000.