A
total of 17 prestigious universities in the United States and other
countries will begin to offer free courses in a virtual world by means
of educational virtual world called Coursera , the company said on
Wednesday ( 19/9 ) .
Statement
of Coursera that berbasid in Mountain View , Calif. , underscores the
rapid growth of the MOOC , or massive open online courses , that are
reshaping the landscape of higher education .
Coursera
, a company founded by two computer science professor at Stanford
University , will offer more than 200 emaciated from 33 institutions
that are open to anyone who has Internet access . Company officials said that the site has had 1.3 million students around the world .
The
new Coursera partners include Brown University , Columbia , Emory ,
Vanderbilt and Wesleyan , as well as Berklee College of Music and Mount
Sinai School of Medicine .Foreign
universities that participate in this program is the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem , University of British Columbia , University of London ,
University of Melbourne , and the University of Science and Technology
Hong Kong , according to Coursera .
The
new additions include five public institutions : Ohio State University ,
University of Florida , University of Pittsburgh , University of
Maryland and the University of California at Irvine ."
As the loss of a restriction in the world of higher education ,
Coursera is clearly the leading player on the global stage and we want
to partner with them , " said University of Florida president Bernie
Machen said in a statement .
EDX
, competitors Coursera made by Harvard University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology , announced this month that it
will start giving students the option to take a supervised final exam ,
which enables them to independently validated certificates to be shown
on a prospective employer or educational institution .
In
a report published last week , Moody 's Investors Service said that the
growth of online courses could help participating universities earn new
income sources , raise awareness of their names and become more
efficient .
However,
Moody 's also warned that such courses , which can reach an infinite
number of students around the world , can be detrimental and reduce
student in educational institutions and non-profit universities are not
too selective . ( AP / Terence Chea )
