The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has brought the world order to a halt. Every routine that we used to follow has now been altered. In the face of restrictive movements and closure of many schools and colleges, students, who were supposed to be studying and preparing for their exams in coming months, are facing a void.
To help the educational institutions and fill in the void created by the pandemic, edtech company Coursera has launched a global effort to assist universities and colleges to deliver courseware online.
In an official press release, Coursera said, “We’ll provide every impacted university in the world with free access to our course catalogue through Coursera for Campus. Universities can sign up to provide their enrolled students with access to more than 3,800 courses and 400 Specializations from Coursera’s top university and industry partners. These institutions will have access until July 31, 2020, after which we plan to provide month-to-month extensions depending on prevailing risk assessments. Students, who enroll on or before July 31, will continue to have access until Sept. 30, 2020.”
Since the launch of the program four weeks ago, it has helped over 800 higher education institutions in India, for free programme, to support their mission of continuous and high quality learning and also to reach many more institutions. Even the All India Council For Technical Education through a circular has asked all the institutions to make use of this
opportunity for the benefit of faculty and students.
According to a UNESCO report, over 290 million students across 13 countries will be impacted because of the COVID-19 crisis. Taking into account the situation, platforms like Coursera, BYJU’s, Unacademy, Toppr and more are opening up their classes for free, there has been a surge in the number of users.
Over 1225 universities and colleges have signed up with Coursera, for whom 834 programmes have been activated.
“Since the spread of COVID-19, for impacted countries, we have seen change across several key Coursera metrics. Along with the number of learners turning to Coursera, content consumption has also broadened,” said the company’s statement.
In India, new registrations have seen a 505% year-on-year jump, while enrollments in public health content saw a 2280% increase.
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