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News & Views item - July 2013 |
A Coursera Update. (July 12, 2013)
The New York Times' Tamar Lewin notes that year old Coursera, which offers almost 400 free online courses (MOOCs) has just raised an additional US$43 million in venture capital.
Ms Lewin wraps up her analysis on a note of caution:
Coursera has grown with stunning speed since it began in April 2012, with four university partners. Now, the company works with 83 educational institutions on four continents, offering about 400 free college-level courses to more than four million students from every country in the world.
But after the initial burst of enthusiasm last year about massive open online
courses, or MOOCs, and their potential for democratizing higher education
worldwide, this year has brought some pushback. Faculty members at several
institutions have expressed concern about how the courses may change higher
education, how quickly university administrators signed on to work with MOOC
providers, and whether the aim is more to save money than improve the quality of
education.
So far, most of the students who have completed Coursera MOOCs have been college
graduates, and it is still unclear how well the format will work to help
students without degrees earn college credit for their online work. Coursera has
recently started to market its materials for use by public universities in
blended on-campus classes. Universities that use the materials will pay
licensing fees, which Coursera will share with the universities that produce the
courses.