Our Mission, Part 3: Supporting online learning opportunities that offer flexibility to Duke students, reach the extended community of alumni and prospective students, and extend Duke’s global impact.
Coursera for Duke
In December 2017, Learning Innovation launched Coursera for Duke, a new way for Duke students, faculty and staff to gain free access to all of Duke’s Coursera courses and Specializations. Since the program launched, 972 Duke community members have enrolled in at least one course.
Read more about Coursera for Duke in our Featured Initiatives section
Open online courses
Enrollments in Duke’s Coursera courses since 2012: 5.3 million
Coursera enrollments in the last 3 years: 2.4 million
Coursera enrollments in the last 12 months: 581,000
Coursera Certificates awarded in the last 12 months: 21,000
Live Duke Coursera courses: 57 (with 2 scheduled to launch in 2018) plus 5 Specializations
In addition its Coursera courses, Duke reached 1,400 learners around the world through Introduction to Astronomy, a 100% free open online course on Duke Extend taught by Physics Professor Ronen Plesser.
Coursera offerings launched in the past year
Object Oriented Programming in Java Specialization
Developed with the University of California San Diego, this four-course Specialization teaches professionals with some background in computer programming to to solve more complex problems through object-oriented design with Java.
Introduction to Programming in C Specialization
This specialization develops strong programming fundamentals for learners who want to solve complex problems by writing computer programs. Through four courses, students learn to develop algorithms in a systematic way and read and write the code to implement them. Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering is using this Specialization to market their master’s programs in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Nanotechnology: A Maker’s Course
Through instruction and lab demonstrations, learners obtain a rich understanding of the capabilities of nanotechnology tools and how to them for nano-scale fabrication and characterization. Nan Jokerst, J. A. Jones Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, collaborated with colleagues and faculty from Duke, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University to create this course.
Art of the MOOC: Experiments in Sound
This is the third course in a series developed by Pedro Lasch, Associate Research Professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies, in which learners both explore and create art. Developed in collaboration with artists and the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin), this course equips learners to try their hand at their own sound interventions and musical compositions, or simply focus on learning more about diverse musical traditions, sonic experimentation and acoustic phenomena in everyday life.
Electric Industry Operations and Markets
In this second Coursera course developed by Lincoln Pratson, Gendell Family Professor of Energy and the Environment, learners explore factors that influence costs and prices in electricity markets as well as how markets operate to achieve equilibrium between electricity supply and real-time demand.
FinTech Law and Policy
Designed especially for entrepreneurs and professionals working in the emerging financial technology sector, this course teaches learners about the critical legal, regulatory and policy issues associated with cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, online lending, new payments and wealth management technologies and financial account aggregators.
Experimenting with discussion-driven online learning for alumni
We worked with the Duke Alumni Association and Sanyin Siang, Executive Director for the Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics, to create a new four-week online course for alumni on how to launch an idea (e.g., new business venture, career change, a personal life project). In addition to featuring video lessons and advice from Sanyin and dozens of experts, this online learning experience used reflective exercises to drive course discussions on LinkedIn. Through LinkedIn’s Group tool, alumni learners shared their progress and challenges in advancing their launch projects and gave each other feedback on their launch ideas.
Redesigning lessons for Fuqua’s Global Executive MBA
Learning Innovation’s learning experience designers and media producers worked with faculty at the Fuqua School of Business to redesign video lectures for two courses in the Global Executive MBA program. In collaboration with the faculty and Fuqua Education Technology Services, our staff created new visual narratives to illustrate complex concepts in management and economics. This project supported Fuqua’s efforts to provide more engaging, concise video lessons for their distance program students.
Piloting the online level-up
A “level-up” is a brief online module that give students requisite skills or knowledge for courses and research, internships, and students’ careers after graduation. This spring the Sanford School of Public Policy launched the first Duke level-up, a foundation in U.S. civics for public policy majors.
Read more about the U.S. civics level-up in our Featured Initiatives section
A new portal for Duke’s online courses and programs
We redesigned the Online Duke website at online.duke.edu to serve as a portal and marketing platform for all of Duke’s online offerings, providing a resource to the campus community to showcase their online programs to learners worldwide.
Read more about the online.duke.edu redesign in our Featured Initiatives section