How Will Coursera Brand the 'Less Elite' MOOC Providers?
Part of the appeal of being a university that offers MOOCs through providers like Coursera is that it puts you in very nice academic company since the courses are offered by many of the elite world institutions. Recently, Coursera added ten new state university systems with multiple colleges to their network.
As pointed out on moocnewsandreviews.com, in partnering with so many institutions, Coursera sidesteps a contractual obligation to primarily offer courses from members of the Association of American Universities (AAU) or “top five” universities in countries outside of North America.
Coursera will be branding a new section of its offerings website for these state universities. Some of those state universities might see this as creating a second tier of offerings which put their schools in a less prominent, perhaps second class, light.
Inside Higher Ed reported that SUNY's associate provost, Carey Hatch, "...said SUNY, which has two AAU institutions (Stony Brook University and University at Buffalo), was not quite thrilled with the segregation. 'We’re not totally happy about it, but we understand the perspective of where Coursera partners started from,' he said. 'We hope through the course of time where they end will be something different.' The University of Colorado system is glad it can offer more MOOCs from all its campuses on Coursera. Its Boulder campus is an AAU institution and existing Coursera partner, but its three other campuses are not."
The State University of New York (SUNY) has 64 campuses, which makes it one of the largest systems in the world. They are already making an effort to enroll 100,000 new students over the next several years as part of their own Open SUNY initiative.
As pointed out on moocnewsandreviews.com, in partnering with so many institutions, Coursera sidesteps a contractual obligation to primarily offer courses from members of the Association of American Universities (AAU) or “top five” universities in countries outside of North America.
Coursera will be branding a new section of its offerings website for these state universities. Some of those state universities might see this as creating a second tier of offerings which put their schools in a less prominent, perhaps second class, light.
Inside Higher Ed reported that SUNY's associate provost, Carey Hatch, "...said SUNY, which has two AAU institutions (Stony Brook University and University at Buffalo), was not quite thrilled with the segregation. 'We’re not totally happy about it, but we understand the perspective of where Coursera partners started from,' he said. 'We hope through the course of time where they end will be something different.' The University of Colorado system is glad it can offer more MOOCs from all its campuses on Coursera. Its Boulder campus is an AAU institution and existing Coursera partner, but its three other campuses are not."
The State University of New York (SUNY) has 64 campuses, which makes it one of the largest systems in the world. They are already making an effort to enroll 100,000 new students over the next several years as part of their own Open SUNY initiative.
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