Coursera

Coursera
Type of site
 Online education
Available in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Hebrew, German, Italian
Headquarters Mountain View, California
Founder(s) Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller
Key people Jeff Maggioncalda (CEO)
Employees 250+ (December 2016)
Website www.coursera.org
Alexa rank Increase 577 (October 2016)[1]
Commercial Yes
Registration Required
Users 24 million (February 2017)[2]
Launched April 2012 (2012-04)
Current status Active

Coursera /kərˈsɛrə/ is a venture-backed, education-focused technology company founded by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller that offers online courses and is based in Mountain View, CA.[3] Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, specializations, and degrees in a variety of subjects, such as engineering, humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, mathematics, business, computer science, digital marketing, data science, and others. As of February 2017, Coursera had more than 24 million registered users and more than 2,000 courses.[4]

Background

History

Coursera was founded in 2012 [5] by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller.[6] Ng and Koller were inspired by their experiences offering their Stanford courses online in fall 2011,[7] 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.[8] 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. The company has secured $146.1 million in funding to date.[9]

Strategic Partners

The total number of partners as of February 2017, is 149, across 29 countries. Coursera mainly works with universities and colleges, but also with governments. University partners include University of São Paulo in Brazil,[10] University of London[11] in the UK, Indian School of Business of India,[12] Yonsei University in Korea,[13] and institutions like Yale[14] and University of Pennsylvania.[15]

Product and Services

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.[16] 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 Q1 2017, users can still "access course materials for free;[17] some courses have the option to pay a fee to join the "Signature Track".

Business Model

As of February 2017, Coursera had 24 million registered users signed up for its programs, and offered more than 2,000 online courses.[18]

In September 2013, it announced it had earned $1 million in revenue through the sale of verified certificates that authenticate successful course completion.[19] Coursera first rolled out a series of fee-based course options, which included verified credentials for completion, in 2013.[20] As of October 2015, the company had raised a total of $146.1 million in venture capital.[21]

In January 2016, Coursera rolled out fees to earn grades and assessment for “the vast majority of courses that are part of Specializations.”[22] The company offers Financial Aid to people who demonstrate a need.[23]

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.”[24] 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.”[25]

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.[26] In June 2017, Jeff Maggioncalda became the CEO of Coursera.[27][28][29]

References

  1. ↑ "Coursera.org Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  2. ↑ "Coursera’s new skill search could do for learning what Netflix did for TV". ”TechCrunch”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "Company Overview of Coursera, Inc.". ”Bloomberg”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  4. ↑ "Education for the Modern Era: Transform Your Financial Life with Online Classes from Coursera and 149 of the World’s Best Universities". “CardRates.com”. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  5. ↑ Tamar Lewin (17 July 2012). "Universities Reshaping Education on the Web". ”NewYorkTimes”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  6. ↑ NPR Staff (30 September 2012). "Online Education Grows Up, And For Now, It's Free Listen·18:14". ”NPR”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Staff (August 2012). "Teaching the World: Daphne Koller and Coursera". ”IEEE”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  8. ↑ Waters, Audrey (18 April 2012). "Coursera, the Other Stanford MOOC Startup, Officially Launches with More Poetry Classes, Fewer Robo-Graders". ”Hacked Education”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  9. ↑ "Coursera". ”Hacked Education”. 24 March 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  10. ↑ Heim, Anna (4 October 2014). "September in Latin America: All the tech news you shouldn’t miss from the past month". ”The Next Web”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  11. ↑ Staff (19 August 2016). "New IoT and Embedded Systems courses launched on Coursera". ”eCampusNews”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  12. ↑ Dasgupta, Brinda (9 June 2016). "Coursera and ISB launch series of investment management courses". ”Econonomic Times of India”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  13. ↑ Fairhead, Harry Connolly (12 October 2016). "Online Training For IoT Development". ”I-Programmer”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  14. ↑ Martell, Bess Connolly (22 February 2016). "School of Music launches ‘Music and Social Action’ Coursera course". ”Yale News”. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  15. ↑ DQIndia Online (17 August 2016). "Coursera partners with U.S. Department of State and University of Pennsylvania". ”DataQuest”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  16. ↑ Kamenetz, Anya (2012-08-08). "How Coursera, A Free Online Education Service, Will School Us All | Fast Company | Business + Innovation". Fast Company. Retrieved 2014-04-19.
  17. ↑ Lomas, Natasha (31 October 2016). "Coursera’s new monthly subscriptions could monetize procrastination". ”TechCrunch”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  18. ↑ "Education for the Modern Era: Transform Your Financial Life with Online Classes from Coursera and 149 of the World’s Best Universities". “CardRates.com”. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  19. ↑ Heussner, Ki Mae (12 September 2013). "Coursera hits $1M in revenue through verified certificates". ”Gigaom”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  20. ↑ Fain, Paul (9 January 2013). "Paying for Proof". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  21. ↑ Staff (9 January 2013). "Coursera: CNBC Distruptor". CNBC. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  22. ↑ Staff (25 January 2016). "Coursera to Charge Fees for Previously Free Courses". “EdSurge”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  23. ↑ Staff (20 June 2016). "IIE to Connect Refugee Students with Online Courses through New Coursera for Refugees Program". ”Institute of International Education”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  24. ↑ Sawers, Paul (31 August 2016). "Coursera for Business launches to tap the billion-dollar corporate e-learning market". ”VentureBeat”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  25. ↑ Kuchler, Hannah (31 October 2016). "Education start-up Coursera shifts to monthly subscriptions". ”Financial Times”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  26. ↑ Sawers, Paul (24 January 2017). "Coursera for governments and nonprofits launches to ‘close the growing skills gap’". ”VentureBeat”. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  27. ↑ Korn, Melissa (2017-06-13). "Coursera Names Financial Engines Ex-CEO Jeff Maggioncalda as New Leader". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  28. ↑ "Coursera gets a new CEO: former Financial Engines CEO Jeff Maggioncalda replaces Rick Levin". VentureBeat. 2017-06-13. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
  29. ↑ "http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/06/14/coursera-ceo-jeff-maggioncalda-financial-engines.html". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2017-06-15. External link in |title= (help)
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