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发帖数: 346 | 1 New Coursera CEO Richard Levin, shown at Yale in 2013, said technology can
extend higher education's reach.
Coursera Inc., a Silicon Valley startup that has provided millions of
students free online access to hundreds of brand-name college courses, named
former Yale University President Rick Levin as its chief executive.
The appointment signals a renewed bid for credibility and profitability by a
sector of higher education known as massive open online courses, or MOOCs.
The classes have been both widely heralded as the next great technological
disruption in education and condemned for cannibalizing an industry already
facing a steep decline in public funding.
"Technology now gives us the means to extend the reach of high-quality
higher education around the world and to provide millions of people with
access to learning and opportunities for advancement," the 66-year-old Mr.
Levin said in a statement Monday.
Also on Monday, EdX, Coursera's East Coast nonprofit competitor, said it
appointed Wendy Cebula, a former executive of printing company Vistaprint
VPRT -2.18% NV, as president and chief operating officer. EdX said its
current president, Anant Agarwal, will become CEO and focus on strategy.
Last November, Udacity, the third major MOOC provider in the U.S., said it
was abandoning academic disciplines in favor of vocational training.
The shifts of direction and personnel come as MOOCs struggle to find both an
identify beyond Silicon Valley hype and a business model that can sustain
their stated goal of bringing an inexpensive world-class education to anyone
with Internet access.
Founded in 2012 by two Stanford University computer-science professors,
Coursera has attracted $85 million in venture capital and nearly seven
million customers. Virtually all of the company's revenue comes from the
small number of students who pay between $30 and $90 for a certificate after
passing a proctored exam; the vast majority of students don't finish the
company's online courses.
Last fall, Coursera said it earned its first $1 million. Co-founder Andrew
Ng wouldn't comment on its valuation.
Mr. Levin's appointment could represent a doubling down on Coursera's bid to
win accreditation for its courses, a step which would open the door to
significantly more revenue, said Ray Schroeder, associate vice chancellor
for Online Learning at the University of Illinois Springfield.
"Coursera has huge potential," Mr. Schroeder said. "The roadblock has always
been accreditation."
Mr. Schroeder estimates that with accreditation the company could charge
around $300 for a course and still undercut the cost of most other
accredited courses by several hundred or even several thousand dollars. The
American Council on Education has recommended five Coursera courses for
accreditation, but so far few students have taken them for credit, he said.
"Ultimately the goal is to use the course either as transfer credit or for
an entire degree," Mr. Schroeder added.
Mr. Levin said Coursera couldn't replicate the traditional four-year
residential education model, but he said "we're going to address the needs
of millions who don't have access to that."
An economist who served as Yale's president from 1993 to 2013, Mr. Levin
helped boost the university's endowment to $20 billion from $3 billion. He
also increased recruitment overseas and began the development of a 136-acre
campus in West Haven, Conn.
His global connections are expected to help Coursera continue to expand into
developing counties, including China. His stature in the world of higher
education also is likely to lend the company credibility to expand its ties
beyond 108 partner universities, if it seeks broader accreditation.
Those universities spend an average of about $50,000 to produce Coursera
courses, which are viewed by tens or sometimes hundreds of thousands of
students. The schools earn about a 15% cut of the revenue the classes
generate. In return for lending the company prestige, they get both goodwill
and a marketing boost.
If MOOCs become widely accepted for credit, they have the capacity to
undermine the business model of traditional universities. At least for now,
however, none of the schools that create courses for Coursera accept them
for credit, said Mr. Schroeder.
In Washington, there is political will on both sides of the aisle to find
some path to accreditation for MOOCs because they hold out the promise of
reducing the soaring cost of postsecondary education.
Andrew Ng, Coursera's co-founder, says the company likes its current
business model of generating revenue through certificates. Most MOOC
learners already have degrees and use the courses to give them a leg up in
the job market. On that score, the value of Coursera certificates is rising,
he said.
The company recently sent an email to 200,000 students who had earned a
certificate, offering them a simple path to posting it on their LinkedIn
account. Mr. Ng said 21% of them posted the certificate.
"In terms of a marketing campaign, that is out of the park," he said. He
said he believes the result reflects the growing stature of Coursera
certificates among employers.
A January analysis by Deloitte, which audits Coursera, predicted that by
2020 MOOCs would capture 10% of the $1.5 trillion postsecondary education
market.
Deloitte analysts pointed to the growing demand for adult professionals to
upgrade their skills at ever quicker pace as one reason why MOOCs are likely
to grow. Others include the technology's capacity to use big data to
constantly improve learning outcomes. |
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