MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — (February 20, 2013) — Coursera, a leading massive open online course (MOOC) platform, today announced agreements with 29 universities from around the world to help bring their courses online and available to anyone, for free. Joining the 33 other institutions currently offering courses on Coursera are the following:
- California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)
- Case Western Reserve University
- Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Curtis Institute of Music
- Ecole Polytechnique, France
- IE Business School
- Leiden University, Netherlands
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat München
- National Taiwan University
- National University of Singapore
- Northwestern University
- Penn State University
- Rutgers University
- Sapienza Università di Roma
- Technische Universität München (TUM)
- Technical University of Denmark
- The University of Tokyo
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
- Universidad TecVirtual del Sistema Tecnológico de Monterrey
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
- University of California, San Diego
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- University of Colorado, Boulder
- University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- University of Geneva, Switzerland
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- University of Rochester
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
Among the new partners are 16 international institutions, which broaden Coursera’s course offerings not only by subject, but also across diverse perspectives and in multiple languages, with new courses available in native language French, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian. Additionally, Coursera will now host more courses from universities at the top of their respective fields, representing some of the leading schools of Business, Medicine, Engineering and the Arts. All this adds up to a deeper and more broad course catalog that students from a wide array of backgrounds can tap into to pursue their academic, career and personal goals.
“We have been humbled by how quickly Coursera has grown in less than a year, and we’re working hard to continue to build our network of university partners to offer a high quality learning experience to anyone who wants it,” said Coursera Co-Founder Daphne Koller. “One of our top priorities is to reach the people who need education the most, including those who would not otherwise have access to the type courses offered by the institutions that we have the honor of working with.”
“With the addition of so many new courses across a wide range of disciplines, languages and academic approaches, we are now able to meet the needs of a more diverse student body, and give students more academic options to explore. We are equally excited about the prospects of bringing higher education to places where access is limited, and of giving established educational institutions opportunities to raise their impact both on and off campus,” added Coursera Co-Founder Andrew Ng.
Since Coursera launched in April 2012, the company has registered a total of almost 2.8 million users, and is seeing approximately 1.45 million course enrollments per month. Additionally, Coursera has recently begun offering students opportunities to receive credit and recognition for their work, whether through Signature Track, which offers verified certificates and shareable course records, or through Credit Recommendations from the American Council of Education (ACE), which offer the potential for students to receive transfer credit to college degree programs for select courses.
To join millions of other life long learners, register for your next course at Coursera.org.
About Coursera
Coursera is on a mission to change the world by educating millions of people by offering classes from top universities and professors online for free. Coursera’s comprehensive education platform combines mastery-based learning principles with video lectures, interactive content and a global community of peers, offering students from around the world a unique online learning experience. Coursera has partnered with top-tier universities to provide courses across a broad range of disciplines, including medicine, literature, history and computer science, among others. Coursera is backed by leading venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates. For more information, visit Coursera.org.
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Read more about the University of Rochester’s involvement with Coursera in this update on online learning initiatives from Robert Clark, interim senior vice president for research.
