UBC, Coursera to offer free online courses

The University of British Columbia (UBC) has joined hands with the US-based company Coursera to impart free online courses. A total of 17 colleges and universities from around the world have signed agreements with Coursera to provide high quality, non-credit courses free of cost.

UBC will start with three non-credit courses through Coursera's online platform in spring 2013.

Coursera courses comprise videos or voice-over PowerPoint presentations, with student-led discussions, interactive activities, quizzes and assignments.  

The 17 universities that have joined Coursera's platform will broaden their horizon in the areas of music, medicine, humanities and more."

The foreign universities added are:

• Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• University of British Columbia
• University of London
• University of Melbourne
• Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

The new five public institutions added are:

• Ohio State University
• University of Florida
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Maryland
• University of California, Irvine

Coursera was established in 2011 by two computer science professors of Stanford University. The company will now offer more than 200 courses from 33 institutions that are open to anyone with Internet access. The new Coursera partners include Brown, Columbia, Emory, Vanderbilt and Wesleyan universities, as well as Berklee College of Music and Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

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