One of the unforeseen consequences of the pandemic has been an unprecedented surge in demand for online learning. Between March 2020 and February 2021, Duke Coursera courses had more than 2.1 million enrollments, greater than 100% of total enrollments for Duke Coursera courses for the past two years combined. Current monthly enrollments in Duke Coursera courses are still more than 70% higher on average than what monthly enrollments had been pre-pandemic. The majority of these enrollments came from universities licensing Coursera courses for free through Coursera’s Coronavirus Response Initiative or learners auditing Duke’s Coursera courses.
A few other Coursera-related developments this past year include:
- Finalized Duke’s agreement with Coursera to launch non-credit Certificates, a new type of credential that stacks into a master’s program. Duke Engineering and Duke Learning Innovation launched Duke’s first Coursera certificate program in Blockchain Applications in February 2021, which prepares learners for Pratt’s Master of Engineering in Financial Technology.
- Launched a Coursera Specialization on Building Cloud Solutions at Scale, which teaches the basic skills of cloud computing, a high-demand skillset in today’s economy.
- Expanded Coursera for Duke to give our community access to the full Coursera catalogue (not just Duke-developed courses as we had offered previously) as courseware to accelerate new online course development or as independent learning opportunities. This Coursera learning program yielded over 4,700 course enrollments in the first three months, between July and September 2020. Though this program ended in April 2021, it paved the way for continued extended access to thousands of Coursera courses for the Duke community through the Coursera Partner Consortium.
- Redesigned assessments for Duke’s English Composition I Coursera course to be completed in a self-assessment format.
- Re-launched Duke’s four Think Again Coursera courses as a Specialization titled, Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking.