Coursera Now Wants To Offer Courses To Universities

Coursera wants to offer courses to universities as part of its push to grow business and reach more students.

The U.S.-based online learning platform which was originally designed to provide infrastructure for universities to put courses online is going back to them with its program, Coursera for Campus, in order to enhance its offering.

The company said it wants to offer its “credit-eligible program” to universities that they can offer to students. “The offering simply allows any university to offer courses on Coursera to its students, and also author courses for its own faculty staffs and students,” Jeff Maggioncalda, chief executive officer of Coursera, told BloombergQuint in an interview. Eight universities from India have already opted for the program, he said.

The company, however, grapples with converting more users to pay for its program, especially in India, the second-largest market for the firm. “Around 5 percent of the users in India are paid customers,” Maggioncalda said, adding that in other markets the average is 10 percent.

Currently, the firm largely makes money through its program for businesses where it has tied up with more than 2,000 businesses out of which 50 are from India. The other key area is a tie up with government, Maggioncalda said.

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