Prof. Daphne Koller of the Computer Science Department of Stanford University believes that online education can address the need for better accessibility to higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the region a very small percentage of college students, a mere 6% enroll in higher education courses. Despite the existing demand for people holding degrees in higher education in developing nations, the disparity between persons with access to quality education and those who do not have access is quite significant.
Global classrooms
With the growing availability of the Internet in these areas, the creation of a “global classroom is now very possible, according to Koller. This tireless, multi-awarded educator is also the co-CEO and co-founder of Coursera. She received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Coursera was founded only last year.
Coursera is a reliable provider of online education and one of the leading institutions on the area in the world. At present, 10 more state colleges and public universities are affiliating with Coursera. These academic institutions intend to take advantage of the latest in available technologies.
The emphasis of Coursera’s partnerships with institutions of learning include hastening graduation, starting students who are still in high school on college education early in the course of their studies, and bringing in-state students back to complete degree programs. 40% of students affiliated with Coursera come from developing countries and only a third are from the United States. Coursera is based in Mountain View, California.
New Coursera partners
The Coursera platform is now made available to 10 public school systems. These halls of learning will be offering their very own online open courses, following in the footsteps of other colleges and universities that have embraced the full potential of online learning before them. The 10 new Coursera partners are the University of Colorado System, University System of Georgia, University of Houston system, the University of Kentucky, the University of Nebraska, the University of New Mexico, the State University of New York, the University of Tennessee, the Tennessee Board of Regents and West Virginia University System.
Quality online resources
There is now a wide array of high quality online education resources that are accessible to those who have connectivity. The schools that are partners with Coursera located in a number of different states, from New York in the East Coast to New Mexico now have access to facilities designed to widen their online learning capabilities. These learning institutions will have the opportunity to experiment with the open course video and testing platforms offered by Coursera. This way, the partner institutions are given the chance to bolster the “blended-classroom” form of teaching-learning. Students can now avail of enrichment tools such as videotaped lectures that may be accessed online.
High demand worldwide
In some of the biggest countries in the world such as Russia, Brazil, and India there are many job opportunities that require applicants with degrees in higher education. The number of vacancies far exceeds the number of persons qualified for the job.
Caption: Coursera logo
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