“Our degrees open up opportunities to empower India’s growing youth”
Coursera, one of the world’s largest online education platforms has announced six new degrees from top universities around the world that will bring the number of programmes offered on its platform to 10. The new set of degrees also includes a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of London, which is Coursera’s first ever Bachelor’s degree. Coursera and its university partners are focused on delivering high quality education with degrees that are more affordable, stackable and flexible. The programmes are expected to launch later this year or in 2019. In an email interview, Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO, Coursera talks about the company and its new offerings.
Why is Coursera launching new degrees on its platform?
Globalization and technology, especially advanced computing, data, and robotics, together will have a profound impact on our lives. With the increased impact of emerging technologies, the nature of jobs and the learning requirements are continuously evolving, accelerating the need for access to high quality education. Learning will be a way of life, not a stage in life - and online learning is the answer to an affordable and flexible model of lifelong learning. Online classrooms of the future will not only rival but surpass the physical classroom experience as the mode of delivery of education will evolve. What will remain constant is the importance of degrees, which still are a critical credential for many people who want to make a significant change in their careers. We were encouraged to broaden the funnel of people who could enroll for degrees considering the huge traction seen towards our degrees launched earlier. With the cost of degrees hitting the roof and technology making post-secondary education more important than ever for career success, we are working with our university partners to figure out a way to deliver degrees more affordably and flexibly while maintaining high quality standards. In a country like India with an immense appetite for education, certifications and degrees are seen as measures of elevating one’s social and economic stature. Also, India is sitting on an untapped goldmine – a demographic dividend in an otherwise aging world. We hope that our degrees will open up opportunities to best empower India’s growing youth.By expanding our degree offerings, we hope to give people the broadest possible choice of education with the lowest possible barriers.
Tell us something about these new degrees. When do they roll out from?
We are announcing six new degrees from some of the world’s best universities planned to start this fall or next year. TThe Arizona State University, Imperial College London, the University of Illinois, the University of London, and the University of Michigan will partner with Coursera to build online degrees in fields where jobs are booming like computer science, business, and healthcare. The degrees available on the Coursera platform are affordable and flexible since they can be completed entirely online.
Learners can explore the open courses first and decide to go on to get a full degree while earning valuable credentials along the way.
What has been the success rate of your programmes so far?
We have seen immense success with our degree programmes from the University of Illinois, which are helping people with diverse educational and geographic backgrounds improve their career options. Our first class of degree students from the University of Illinois MBA on Coursera graduated in December 2017. While it’s still early to publish retention numbers, we can share that the 1 year retention rate across our degree programs is over 90%.
What is Coursera’s usp for students?
In order to truly transform lives and bridge the opportunity divide, we recognized the need to provide learners with the currency that connects them to the career outcomes they are looking for - a richer, and more applied learning experience and employer-recognized credentials. As a practice, we aim to partner with universities that are ranked among the top 200 globally, with every course on Coursera being taught by top instructors from these top universities and educational institutions.
We have also started to work with companies like Google, Intel, and IBM to create career-aligned content that teach in-demand technologies and business skills not typically taught within universities. This ensures that our learners are futureready and are taught industry relevant skills. From a technology perspective, Coursera has built out a robust platform of features and technology integrations to make the online learning experience engaging and impactful. In degrees, students have access to live video sessions with professors, Slack integration for communication with peers and mentors, and remotely proctored exams.