Coursera has received $43 million in funding from Learn Capital, Laureate Education Inc., GSV Capital and several other investors, the company announced in a press release.
The money is expected to be used to further develop Coursera’s massive open online course (MOOC) platform. Coursera uses the MOOC platform to offer free online courses to students around the world.
After bringing in $22 million in funding its first year, this latest investment brings its total funding amount to $67 million over the two years of its existence.
This latest investment will allow the MOOC giant to make platform improvements and double its total number of employees.
Coursera was founded by Stanford computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Since offering its first MOOC course at Stanford in April 2012, the MOOC platform has partnered with dozens of top universities around the world. According to Koller, Coursera will expand its team, its partners and its audiences as it uses technology to “transform” the way students access educational content. The platform now offers 400 free online courses to 4 million students.
One of the latest investors, Michael Moe, chairman and CEO of GSV Capital, explains that Coursera is extending access to the best universities and best professors in the world. “Coursera is on the forefront of transforming the $4.5 trillion dollar learning industry,” he said in the press release.
The free courses offered by MOOC platforms are designed to either supplement the courses of traditional college students or replace them altogether for non-degree seeking students. Partnering universities use the platform to explore ways to improve teaching methods and better engage traditional students.
Coursera will use the $43 million for strategic expansions and technological improvements. It plans to expand its university partnerships and continue its move toward international course offerings by adding to its roster of translation and distribution partnerships. And its biggest technology plan is to offer students the ability to study on the go with mobile apps.
One of the concerns for MOOC students is the question of accreditation for the completion of the free courses. According to a Venture Beat article, the American Council on Education (ACE) has approved some of the Coursera courses for college credit, but most of its courses still do not offer credit.
Coursera has started using an internal credit system by awarding verified certificates of completion through its Signature Track option, which lets students pay a small fee in exchange for a certificate stating that a student’s identity has been verified. While the option is not currently available for most of the courses, a portion of the new investment funding will be used to increase the number of courses on the Signature Track.
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