Coursera signs on 29 more schools to offer free online courses

Ed-tech startup Coursera has announced that 29 more schools will offer courses on its online platform, bringing its total to 62 schools.

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This latest round of expansion clearly demonstrates that the interest in open access education is a very global phenomenon,” said cofounder Daphne Coller (pictured, top left at a meetup) in an interview with VentureBeat. “We are excited about the opportunity to offer a much more international educational experience to Coursera students.”

The latest colleges and universities to sign up include Northwestern University, City University of Hong Kong, National Taiwan University, IE Business School in Spain, and New York’s Rochester University. Sixteen of the 29 are outside the U.S.

Santiago Iñiguez, dean of IE Business School, said the institution will offer courses on Coursera in a few short weeks. “The blended programs and multimedia materials of IE Business School provided an ideal synergy with Coursera’s portfolio of MOOCs [massive open online courses] and related online programs, which are irreversibly transforming the landscape of higher education,” he said in a statement.

Over the next few months, Coursera will offer about 90 new courses taught in a variety of languages, including French, Spanish, and Chinese.

The company has seen nearly 2.8 million students enroll in its video courses from 33 institutions. But public confidence in MOOCs has not been consistent. Last week, Coursera had to suspend one of its online courses due to technical glitches and complaints.

However, the Silicon Valley-based company announced that students can now apply credit to their college degree for five of its free courses. The company was the first to gain a recommendation from the American Council on Education (ACE), ahead of such competitors as Udacity.