Gaby Ramirez, a senior English major at Cal State Long Beach, said all schools – including her own – need an online program like Coursera.
Created by two Stanford University computer scientists, the program offers free access to more than 100 college-level courses ranging from business management to design. The courses are taught by professors from universities across the country, including Duke University and Princeton University, and every course is free.
Ramirez already takes computer science courses online through another free program similar to Coursera.
“We all have those other topics that we’re interested in,” Ramirez said. “Students can take these classes during their summer or winter break.”
According to the Coursera website, the classes are intended to improve students’ resumes, advance their careers or expand their knowledge.
Daphne Koller, a professor in the computer science department at Stanford and co-creator of Coursera, said she believes that education is a right and not a privilege.
Coursera began in April 2012 with four university partners. According to Nikki Sequeira, a public relations representative for Coursera, professors from Stanford, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania and University of Michigan originally provided the online courses.
A dozen more universities, including John Hopkins, Caltech, UC San Francisco and University of Toronto, have recently partnered with Coursera, Sequira said.
“I think a high quality education is a fundamental human right, and with technology, we’re working on bringing this to everyone,” said Andrew Ng, associate professor of computer science at Stanford and co-creator of Coursera.
The online courses consist of video lectures, readings, quizzes and peer interaction. After finishing the course, students earn certificates of completion, though the certificates are not worth any academic credit.
Daniel Sallee, a junior chemical engineering major at CSULB, said he would look into taking courses.
“The reward is based on what you learn,” Sallee said.
Donald Para, provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at CSULB, said there is no plan for CSULB to offer free classes, but Para said he suspects conversations will occur in the future.
“It’s not a topic of conversation right now because it does not advance our prime mission in creating graduates [because the courses have no academic credit],” Para said.
Cal State University Spokesman Erik Fallis said the CSU is seeing many new models for educating mass amounts of people, but the CSU is not moving towards a free online platform. Instead, the system plans to provide a new online degree program starting spring 2013.
As of last week 700,000 students were enrolled, according to Sequeira.
“We are on track to hit two million enrollments [total] in the near future,” she said.
According to Sallee, Coursera provides a valuable opportunity.
“It’s definitely for the ambitious student,” he said. “I like that it allows you to reach out of your own major and explore other classes. And you don’t have to worry about failing.”