Summary
The 2018 Coursera Partner's Conference at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ, highlighted Coursera's steps towards new paid credential options. In addition to the free MOOCs the platform has traditionally offered, students now have the option to pay for certificates (in individual courses), specializations (a collection of courses in a particular subject area), and even full degrees through a growing number of colleges and institutions on the platform. Coursera believes this tiered model of options offers students an affordable, flexible and valuable way to engage in life-long learning.
Below are the most valuable takeaways, notes and thoughts that I marked down throughout the conference.
The Conference
Online teaching in higher education - A continuing quest for innovation in quality and access
Credentials in the work place continue to be important
- single careers for a person’s lifetime are no more
- amount of time that knowledge is relevant has dramatically decreased (especially in tech)
- 50% of jobs are susceptible to automation over the next 20 years. Life long learning and skill building are needed to keep up with the quickly, ever-changing world.
- employees are now expected to own their development and learning (less company provided training and schooling)
- Technology is accelerating at a pace greater than humans can keep up with. Humans must learn how to learn faster.
MOOCs are not a bust. They are a gateway to paying students.
- 50% of paying degree students were former free MOOC takers & have converted to paying students
- recruitment is one of the most difficult and expensive parts of the online learning process. MOOCs provide an easy “try before you buy,” low-risk way for students to become potential paying students.
Is higher education turning into the traditional marketing stack? i.e.:
- budget: free MOOCs & single course certificates
- mid-range: micro-credentials / online degrees
- luxury: on-campus and hybrid learning
Long, broad studies (e.g. undergrad/grad degrees) are being unbundled into shorter forms. Single courses -> micro-credentials (stand alone and valuable on their own) -> degree (most valuable).
Micro-credentials solve a tension between ROI and portability. They’re low-cost and have stand-alone value (even if a whole degree is not completed).
Traditional degrees —> Hybrid, blended offering <— Specializations
1/3 of all graduate education is now online or blended
Coursera wants to be the world's learning platform
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Coursera sees itself as a partner with both universities and companies that provides:
- access to top quality learning at a fraction of the cost
- high quality learning experienced
- credentials that actually mean something
- new degree/micro-credentials
- collaboration between universities and industry
- 900+ companies have partnered with Coursera to provide career development / training / personal enrichment for their employees
- Coursera is partnering with some companies to help students get interviews with that company upon completing a certification
Coursera for Business — platform specifically designed for businesses
- can be specific set of courses or a wide variety, depending on a company’s desires
- many new students on Coursera are coming from companies that have partnered with Coursera
- could companies cease reimbursement for schooling if they provide access to Coursera's catalog instead?
Coursera for Partners - similar to Coursera for Business but for on campus usage
- can be used for hybrid learning, prospective students, low stake way for students to learn about topics they are intersted in
Coursera's new suscription model has increased course completions as well as revenue
New platform features
- Plugins - now possible in the platform. e.g. ability to embed iframes, particularly youtube videos. Plugin items appear in main syllabus.
- Workspaces - a more robust version form of plugins...more information coming soon
- Interventions - Coursera platform can offer students “interventions” — tips, encouragement, useful info about the course material, based on machine learning from previous students who have encountered the content (i.e. 55% of student rewatch this video, most students take 1.5 hours to complete this exam, etc.)
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Shared course items
- 1 video shared can be across other courses
- Assignment completion can be shared
- Course can be copied from one session to another
Paid degree programs offer much higher touch tools
- Use of interactive online tools. i.e. Zoom and Slack
- Graded discussion forums (students can be required to reply to x number of threads)
- Ability to have mix and match types of questions in a single exam/assignment. e.g. automatically graded quiz question with a text box that is instructor graded
Machine Learning in Coursera
- By asking students for info about what they learned, what the outcome of taking a course was, etc., that information can be aggregated/analyzed and used to provide future students with information and suggestions on what courses to take next
- Personalized learner plans -> replaced with a tool that lets you find courses on platform based on a various filters/options/desired outcomes / careers. Machine learning helps platform figure out what to suggest, what learners glean from certain courses.
Deep level personalization for students — showing students where their knowledge level is in different categories important to their end goal/desired skill/career goal
Rather than have an in-house team, Wharton has “video producers” who manage contracted work with freelance videographers. This model is more efficient because they can maximize / scale amount of production output, leverage strengths of different videographers, get more done faster, etc.
You can use videos in your course as promotional tools -- if you share a coursera video, it includes an enroll now link at the bottom of the page for non-logged in users.
When starting a new course / session, you must convince former students to come along by highlighting why it’s better / promoting new content that’s in the new course/version that isn’t in the original
Future of higher education
- Greater access to students across the world while also maintaining quality of experience
- Greater interactivity; learning is happening outside of 45 minute lecturers
- Continuing to take risks and experiment with teaching methods and delivery (e.g. Coursera was a risk for many institutions). "Higher ed lives and dies with experiments."
- More virtual reality immersion for learning (e.g. language learning)
- Increasing amounts of online content
- Encouraging already-enrolled, paying students in higher education institutions to take at least one online course because it is the future of learning
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