Providing access to more than 3800 remote learning courses, Coursera is offering its service for free to universities affected by the spread of Covid-19

As an increasing number of countries are closing universities in an attempt to thwart the spread of Covid-19, many institutions are scrambling to find an eLearning platform so students can continue learning and preparing for exams.

Coursera, based in California, is leading the way in helping institutions that lack the infrastructure to offer remote learning courses for students.  It has announced that it will make its platform available entirely for free, for up to 5000 students per university until the end of July.  Following this period, access will be determined on a month-month basis.  The program has been titled the Coursera Coronavirus Response Initiative.

56 million students from around the world use the Coursera campus platform and it has developed partnerships with over 200 top universities and colleges to deliver online learning courses.

“ When [the coronavirus] broke out more broadly, we started getting requests, both from partner universities who work with Coursera, as well as other colleges and universities and governments saying, you know, we expected to evolve and offer online education over the next few years, but now we need to figure out how to do it over the next few months, ” Jeff Maggioncalda, Chief Executive, Coursera

Courses are available in the following subject areas:

• Data Science
• Computer Science
• Business
• Technology
• Healthcare
• IT & Cloud Computing
• Arts & Humanities
• Physical Sciences & Engineering
• Professional Development

You can read more about the Coursera Coronavirus Response Initiative here: https://www.coursera.org/coronavirus

The surge in demand for online learning solutions has sparked other eLearning providers, such as edX, to release similar free initiatives to support universities.  edX and its founding partners Harvard and MIT have expanded their Remote Access Program in partnership with UC Berkeley, Universitat Politècnica de València and IBM.

You can read more about the edX Remote Access Program here: https://www.edx.org/covid-19