CU on Coursera, free suite of global online courses, now available

The University of Colorado has announced the launch of CU on Coursera, a free online learning program available to the university community.

CU on Coursera offers over 100 Coursera courses taught by faculty across CU Boulder, the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, CU Denver and UCCS. Courses are available at no cost to all faculty, staff and students currently at any of the four campuses or system office.

Coursera is the world’s largest MOOC (massive open online course) provider, with a learner population of nearly 40 million. With CU on Coursera, you’ll gain access to a curated set of University of Colorado courses on this world-class learning platform.

“CU’s excellent Coursera content, created by nearly 70 faculty on all four campuses, is reaching more than 2 million learners around the globe. For the first time, CU faculty, students and staff have the opportunity to access the valuable certificates associated with these MOOCs at no cost to them,” said Deborah Keyek-Franssen, associate vice president for digital education and engagement at the University of Colorado system. “We also anticipate that faculty on all of CU’s campuses will take advantage of the CU on Coursera program by augmenting on-campus courses with rich, asynchronous online content that includes interactions with and perspectives of international learners.”

CU on Coursera offers diverse educational experiences and certificates on subjects ranging from Cybersecurity and Effective Communication to Excel VBA Programming and Becoming an EMT. Courses are self-paced and fully online so that you can learn anywhere, anytime.

CU faculty have been hosting high-quality educational experiences on Coursera since 2013. CU on Coursera brings that passion and experience directly to faculty and staff.

“This program embodies and celebrates CU’s commitment to serving our local and global community by investing in opportunities for lifelong learning and professional development,” said William Kuskin, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for strategic initiatives at CU Boulder. “This is why we do MOOCs, to inspire the reimagination of teaching, learning and educational delivery in the digital age. And, indeed, to acknowledge the transformational potential of higher education.”

Among the key features:

• Courses feature interactive videos, readings and resources
• Practice exercises and graded assessments evaluate knowledge and provide feedback
• Short courses, typically three to six weeks, taken at your own pace
• Flexible and adaptive schedule to meet your learning needs
• Verified and shareable Coursera certificates of achievement for courses you complete

Check out the full list of available courses at no cost by following these steps:

1. Log into your campus portal
2. Head to CU Resources and navigate to the Training area
3. Click on the CU on Coursera tile
4. On the CU on Coursera home page, click Join for Free
5. Click the Log in with University of Colorado button
6. Select your campus and then log in using your institutional credentials
7. When you return to the CU on Coursera home page, browse courses and start learning.

CU on Coursera is a currently a pilot program that will run through the fall 2019 semester. This pilot will be administered jointly by the Office of Strategic Initiatives at CU Boulder and the Office of Digital Education and Engagement at the University of Colorado system.