Dive Summary:
- EdTech runs through three interesting details about Coursera, including the fact that it has partnered with 33 universities, such as Brown, Duke, Stanford, John Hopkins, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.
- The MOOC provider is currently free to use; however, participating schools signed contracts that give them a share of the profits if there are any.
- Coursera reached 1 million users within four months of launching, faster than Facebook, which took 10 months, and Twitter, which took 24 months.
From the article:
"If you haven’t heard of Coursera, it’s worth taking a few minutes to learn about their mission. They are offering free education to the masses, taught by professors from some of the best schools in the world. Since they launched in April 2012, their model has received significant recognition from technology and education communities. Here is an excerpt from their 'About' page:
'We are a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. We envision a future where the top universities are educating not only thousands of students, but millions. Our technology enables the best professors to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students.' ..."