Coronavirus: University students stuck at home get free online courses

Dubai: Coursera, the world’s largest online learning platform, announced today that it is making its full course catalog free to every university in the world impacted by coronavirus.

As hundreds of thousands of students globally face some sort of disruption due to the virus, many universities around the world are seeking to go online to mitigate the impact.

To help students continue learning as seamlessly as possible, Coursera will extend its Coursera for Campus offering to provide universities free access to 3,800 courses and 400 Specializations from leading universities and companies.

For example over the past few weeks, Duke University has been using Coursera for Campus to serve impacted students at their Duke Kunshan campus in China.

This effort has been swiftly adopted by students and widely recognized by the broader community. We believe that Coursera for Campus can be an effective resource to help all higher education institutions respond to the impact of coronavirus.

The spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is the most serious global health security threat in decades. In many countries, restrictions imposed by government agencies have disrupted daily routines for millions, including students.

Many universities in the impacted regions have suspended face-to-face seminars, closed campuses, and are scrambling to find a solution to minimize disruption for their students.

Jeff Maggioncalda, the CEO of Coursera wrote in their online blog “We are fortunate to have university and industry partners, who have been at the forefront of responding to the challenges humanity has faced from time to time. Inspired by their support and consistent with our mission of serving learners everywhere, we are launching a global effort to assist universities and colleges seeking to offer online courseware in response to the coronavirus. “

Starting today, they are providing every impacted university in the world with free access to their course catalogue through Coursera for Campus. Universities can sign up to provide their enrolled students with access to more than 3,800 courses and 400 Specializations. These institutions will have access until July 31, 2020, after which the plan is to provide month-to-month extensions depending on prevailing risk assessments.