February 21, 2013
Rutgers Joins
Coursera to Provide Access to Free Online Courses
Rutgers announces
that the university is joining
Coursera, a leading massive open
online course (MOOC) platform, to
provide free, non-credit courses to
students and lifelong learners
around the world.
A
MOOC is an online course aimed at
large-scale participation and open
access via the web. It’s not unusual
for tens of thousands of people to
sign on simultaneously to one
course. Although similar to college
courses, MOOCs typically do not
offer academic credit.
Coursera has more
than two million users around the
world and offers hundreds of courses
from prestigious colleges and
universities in the United States
and abroad, including Columbia,
University of Pennsylvania,
Stanford, University of Michigan,
Brown, University of London
International Programmes, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem and the
University of Melbourne.
“These are
exciting and rapidly changing times
for higher education,” said Rutgers
President Robert L. Barchi. “Using
massive open online courses, Rutgers
will join our peer institutions in
the U.S. and around the world in
providing boundless access to top
flight instruction in the numerous
disciplines where Rutgers excels.
Our hope is that some of these
thousands of students will go on to
apply to our online or on-campus
degree programs.”
“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 of courses offered by
the institutions we have the honor
of working with.”
Coursera announced today that 29
universities, including Rutgers,
have joined the 33 other
institutions that offer free online
courses on its platform.
Initially, Rutgers
will offer three courses on the
Coursera platform: “Analyzing the
Universe,” a science course created
in partnership with NASA and Harvard
led by Rutgers professor Terry
Matilsky; “Soul Beliefs,” an
interdisciplinary review of beliefs
about the soul, with professors Len
Hamilton and Dan Ogilvie; and, in
partnership with a wide range of
Rutgers faculty, James Martin will
lead a course based on his latest
book, “The Future of Humankind.”
Martin founded the Oxford Martin
School at the University of Oxford,
which does scholarly research on the
most pressing problems, dangers and
opportunities facing our planet. He
is a Pulitzer Prize nominee for his
book “The Wired Society.”
In addition to
expanding access, participation in
Coursera provides Rutgers online
educators with an extraordinary
opportunity to learn how MOOCs are
best utilized and what practices can
assist in facilitating online
learning. Rutgers also anticipates
using the platform to increase
online participation in existing
campus courses.
Rutgers recently
announced the creation of Rutgers
Online. The initiative began in
January and will offer more than 20
fully online master’s degrees by the
end of the 2013-14 academic year.
Rutgers has offered online courses
since 1999, initially only at the
graduate level. Currently, there are
more than 15,000 enrollments each
year in Rutgers online courses.
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