What is COURSERA?

At the beginning of March I participated in an 18-hour professional development workshop on facilitating Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) conducted by U.S. Department of State Specialist Mary Catherine Boehmer. That is where I’ve known about Coursera - one of the educational platforms in the world. I have signed up for the course “English for Media Literacy”, which will last for 6 weeks. By the end of the course I hope to get a certificate. Moreover, Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) is one of the educational resources recommended by Ministry of Education and Science be used nowadays.

Coursera is an American online learning platform founded in 2012 by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller that offers massive open online courses (MOOC), specializations, and degrees.

Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, specializations, and degrees in a variety of subjects, such as engineering, data science, machine learning, mathematics, business, computer science, digital marketing, humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, and others.

History

Coursera was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Ng and Koller were inspired by their experiences offering their Stanford courses online in fall 2011, and soon after left Stanford to launch Coursera. Princeton, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania were the first universities to offer content on the platform. Offerings have since expanded to include Specializations – collections of courses that build skills in a specific subject – as well as degrees and a workforce development product for businesses and government organizations.

Funding

The startup raised an initial $16 million funding round backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates. In 2013, the World Bank Group led the Series B investment, which totaled $63 million. In 2015, EDB Investments led the Series C round of venture funding, which totaled more than $60 million. In 2017, the company raised $64 million from its existing investors in Series D round of funding. In 2019, the company raised $103 million in Series E round of funding from the SEEK Group, Future Fund and NEA. The company reached valuation of $1 billion+ in 2019.

Strategic partners

As of December 2019, the total number of partners is more than 200 across 29 countries. Coursera mainly works with universities and colleges, but also with corporates and governments. University partners include University of São Paulo in Brazil, University of London in the UK, Indian School of Business of India, Yonsei University in Korea, and institutions like Yale and University of Pennsylvania.

Courses

Coursera courses last approximately four to ten weeks, with one to two hours of video lectures a week. These courses provide quizzes, weekly exercises, peer-graded assignments, and sometimes a final project or exam. Courses are also provided on-demand, in which case users can take their time in completing the course with all of the material available at once. As of May 2015 Coursera offered 104 on-demand courses.

As of 2017 Coursera offers full master's degrees. They first started with Master's in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OMIE) from HEC Paris and Master's of Accounting (iMSA) from the University of Illinois, but have moved on to offer Master of Computer Science in Data Science and Master of Business Administration (iMBA), both from University of Illinois

Business model

In September 2013, it announced it had earned $1 million in revenue through the sale of verified certificates that authenticate successful course completion Coursera first rolled out a series of fee-based course options, which included verified credentials for completion, in 2013. As of October 2015, the company had raised a total of $146.1 million in venture capital.

In January 2016, Coursera rolled out fees to earn grades and assessment for "the vast majority of courses that are part of Specializations. The company offers Financial Aid to people who demonstrate a need.

In July 2016, the company launched an enterprise product called Coursera for Business. TechCrunch notes that the company, "opened itself to additional revenues from the lucrative corporate e-learning market, which some reports suggest was worth $12 billion in the US alone." Coursera for Business customers include L’Oréal, Boston Consulting Group, and Axis Bank.

In October 2016, Coursera launched a monthly subscription model for Specializations. The company has said subscription costs will vary, "depending on the topic area."

In January 2017, the company launched Coursera for Governments & Nonprofits. Coursera has announced partnerships with the Institute for Veterans & Military Families (IVMF) in the United States and entities in Egypt, Mongolia, Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan. In June 2017, Jeff Maggioncalda became the CEO of Coursera.

In March 2018, Coursera launched six fully online degree courses including the bachelor's and master's qualifications

Sources:

1. Coursera – Wikipedia
2. University of Pennsylvania. Online learning.

    Kissanova Zairakul, the teacher of the English Langua