Communications of the ACM
Twice As Many Moocs
Credit: The Evolllution
Coursera and edX both recently announced they are doubling the number of universities offering classes through their open online education sites.
For Coursera, the expansion means an additional 29 new universities will join the company's 33 existing partners. Sixteen of Coursera's new partners are international institutions, including universities in Italy, Hong Kong, France, and Spain. Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng says the international additions should help the company attract non-English-speaking students around the world. To expand its international appeal, Coursera plans to offer more classes in languages other than English. It currently offers one or two courses in French, but plans to have more classes in French as well as Spanish, Chinese, and Italian.
edX will add six new universities, five of which are international. "In the longer term, our mission is to dramatically increase access to education worldwide," says edX president Anant Agarwal. All edX courses currently are only offered in English, but Agarwal notes that officials at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne want to offer classes in French.
Both Coursera and edX say they want their students to get credit for taking their classes, and Coursera already offers five classes that lead to credit recommendations from the American Council on Education.
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