MOOCs Available From Brown University

Presuming they are accepted into the university, students can take a Comparative Literature course, Archaeology and the Ancient World course, as well as a Computer Science course on-campus at Brown University for about $689 each. Given the fact that Brown accepts only 8.9% of the applicants seeking admission to the school, just getting into Brown can be quite a challenge. Even then, the cost of tuition, books, and other expenses can be overwhelming.

Thanks to a new partnership with Coursera, Brown University is now able to provide those courses at no charge to the student. Admittance to the university is not required and the courses can be completed entirely online. Any student interested in taking these three classes from Brown University will now have that opportunity.

Coursera is a company that provides a platform for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Brown University recently announced a new partnership with Coursera to provide three classes in the form of MOOCs beginning in the summer of 2013. The three faculty members who teach these courses in the traditional formats will also deliver the MOOCs to any student with access to the internet and a computer. Brown is excited to share the passion and talent of the faculty with the global public.

“In developing some inspiring Brown courses for the Coursera platform, we are not only bringing the best of Brown to a world learning community, we are also going to learn so much ourselves,” stated Katherine Bergeron, dean of Brown University. The school’s partnership with Coursera is one of the 33 partnerships the program has now established with prominent universities across the nation. The platform currently offers more than 200 courses in 17 areas of studies.

Although many of these courses are not credited and do not count towards a degree, the opportunity for students to have free access to these valuable educational resources is unprecedented in the academic community. Brown University provides some of the most exclusive curriculum among its competitors and now the materials are available to anyone with a desire to learn.

Any career related to the course – computer technology, archaeology or history, and literature or writing – can be supplemented by these courses and benefitted positively by the material in the courses. MOOCs are in the beginning stages of a predictably revolutionary form of higher education and as an increasing number of schools join the movement, students will have increased access to educational opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to them. Careers and learning can be positively impacted by MOOCs, which will inevitably translate into higher levels of success for the self-motivated individual.