STORY

Free Coursera courses expanded for CU faculty, staff, students

Consortium brings online courses from universities around the world
By Staff
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The catalog of online courses offered free to CU faculty, staff and students expanded this spring thanks to participation in a consortium of university partners around the world.

Since 2018, CU has offered no-cost access to hundreds of non-credit online courses, taught by CU faculty from across the system, via the CU on Coursera learning program. Popular course offerings include CU Boulder’s “The Science of Exercise” and “Everyday Excel,” CU Anschutz’s “Become an EMT,” CU Denver’s “Inclusive Leadership” and UCCS’s “Computational Thinking.”

This spring, CU expanded premium access to even more online courses by securing participation in the Coursera Partner Consortium, a learning program that offers CU faculty, staff and degree-seeking students free access to not just CU’s Coursera courses, but to thousands of additional non-credit, online courses offered by Coursera’s global network of university partners.

Popular Consortium courses include “The Science of Well Being” from Yale University, “Python for Everybody” from the University of Michigan and “How to Change the World” from Wesleyan University.

“We are delighted to offer the CU community no-cost access to Coursera content from university partners around the globe,” said Quentin McAndrew, assistant vice provost and executive director for strategic transformation and academic and learning innovation. “The Coursera Partner Consortium furthers CU’s mission of providing access to high-quality, online learning experiences that enrich the lives of our students, faculty and staff.”

Courses are online and self-paced. Students can learn anywhere, anytime to develop a new skill set, explore a new subject and augment their CU learning journey.

Faculty, staff and degree-seeking students at CU Boulder, UCCS, CU Denver, the CU Anschutz Medical Campus and CU system administration may access the Coursera Partner Consortium by logging into their campus portal, navigating to the “Training” area in CU Resources, and clicking on the “Coursera Consortium” tile.

The Coursera Partner Consortium is available to the university via a collaboration between CU Boulder’s Office of Academic and Learning Innovation and the University of Colorado Office of Academic Affairs.