Coursera
//
is an
educational technology company offering
massive open online courses (MOOCs)
founded by
computer science professors
Andrew Ng and
Daphne Koller from
Stanford University. Coursera works with universities to make some
of their courses available online, and offers courses in
engineering,
humanities,
medicine,
biology,
social sciences,
mathematics,
business,
computer science, and other areas.
Business model
The contract between Coursera and participating universities contains
a "brainstorming" list of ways to generate revenue, including
certification fees, introducing students to potential employers and
recruiters (with student consent), tutoring, sponsorships and tuition
fees.[3][4]
As of March 2012, Coursera was not yet generating revenue.[5]
That July, certification and the sale of information to potential
employers was being explored. Thus far the company has been funded by
$16 million in venture capital awarded in April 2012.[6]
John Doerr suggested that people will pay for "valuable, premium
services".[7]
Any revenue stream will be divided, with schools receiving a small
percentage of revenue and 20% of gross profits.[4][8]
In January 2013, Coursera announced that the
American Council on Education had approved five courses for college
credit[9]
The courses that are available for college credit are:[citation
needed]
Coursera will offer proctored exams at the end of these courses
through ProctorU, an online proctoring service that connects proctors
and students via webcam. The service will cost $60–$90.[10]
Coursera reduces the cost of courses it offers by making students
grade their peers' homework[11]
and employing statistical methods to validate the assessment.[citation
needed]
Courses
The website provides free online courses including Humanities,
Medicine, Biology, Social Sciences, Mathematics, Business, Computer
Science, and others.[12]
Each course includes short video lectures on different topics and
assignments to be submitted, usually on a weekly basis. In most
humanities and social science courses, and other assignments where an
objective standard may not be possible, a peer review system is used.[11]
More than 100 courses were offered in Fall 2012.[8]
A Swiss University partner,
EPFL, offers French courses. It was announced in November 2012 that
Coursera would work with the
American Council on Education (ACE) to evaluate credit equivalency
for the Coursera courses.[13]
Partners
Coursera started in 2012 working with
Stanford University,
Princeton, the
University of Michigan, and the
University of Pennsylvania.[14]
12 partners were added in July 2012[8]
followed by 17 more in September 2012.[15]
In February 2013, the company announced another 29 partner universities.[16]
The current total number of partners is 70.[17]
References
-
^
"Coursera’s First Birthday!". Coursera. 2013-04-19.
Retrieved 2013-05-01.
-
^
"Coursera.org Site Info".
Alexa Internet. Retrieved
2012-08-02.
-
^
"Possible Company Monitization Strategies". Schedule 1 of
the contract between Coursera and the University of Michigan.
The Chronicle of Higher Education. p. 40.
Retrieved July 20, 2012.
- ^
a
b
Jeffrey
R. Young (19 July 2012).
"Inside the Coursera Contract: How an Upstart Company Might
Profit From Free Courses". The Chronicle of Higher
Education. Retrieved July
20, 2012.
-
^
Kolowich, Steve (7 March 2012).
"An LMS for Elite MOOCs?". Inside Higher Ed.
Retrieved 13 April 2012.
-
^
"Stanford partners with Coursera to offer more online courses:
It's what the faculty want". Computing Education Blog. 13
March 2012. Retrieved 13
April 2012.
-
^
"Coursera Plans to Announce University Partners for Online
Classes". Retrieved 2 May
2012.
- ^
a
b
c
Tamar
Lewin (17 July 2012).
"Universities Reshaping Education on the Web". The New
York Times. Retrieved
July 17, 2012.
-
^
"American Council on Education Recommends 5 MOOCs for Credit".
Retrieved 7 Feb 2013.
- ^
a
b
"Online learning goes official as five Coursera courses get
approved by the American Council on Education".
Retrieved 7 Feb 2013.
- ^
a
b
"Coursera: Pedagogy".
Retrieved 12 April 2013.
-
^
"Coursera: About us".
-
^
Heussner, Ki Mae (13 November 2012).
"Coursera takes step to enable students to receive college
credit for it's courses". Gigaom.
Retrieved 4 December 2012.
-
^
"UK university joins US online partnership". BBC News. July
17, 2012. Retrieved 17 July
2012.
-
^
Lewin,
Tamar (2012-09-19).
"coursera adds more ivy league partner universities l".
New York Times. Retrieved
2012-09-24.
-
^
"Coursera adds 29 new universities to bring total to 62, offers
first courses in Chinese, Italian, and Spanish".
The Next Web. 21 February 2013.
-
^
"Partner universities". Coursera.
Retrieved 31 May 2013.