Features
The University finds itself on the frontier of a new age of online learning as one of the initial content providers for Coursera
When 130,000 students signed up for 
’s “Introduction to Finance” course last fall, the Ross School of Business professor didn’t need a larger lecture hall. In fact, he probably could have conducted the class in his office thanks to a new Web-based platform called Coursera. Not only did it open his classroom to the world, Coursera opened Kaul’s mind to a new method of teaching.
“Having the ability to provide people all over the world a glimpse of the kind of education we provide at the University of Michigan appealed to me,” says Kaul, who is U-M’s special counsel for digital education initiatives. “Also, I wanted to push myself in a new direction, hone my skills, and investigate what is possible in terms of being able to reach people.”
“Introduction to Finance” is one of Coursera’s most popular offerings, based on the number of registrants, says Andrew Ng, Coursera co-founder. In spring 2012, Ng and fellow Stanford University professor Daphne Koller launched the new platform, which hosts more than 200 free, not-for-credit, college-level courses offered by the world’s top universities.
“As one of the first partners to join Coursera, the University of Michigan is helping pave the way for its peer institutions to pursue online education,” says Ng.
ONLINE LEARNING PLATFORMS such as Coursera, edX, and Udacity “absolutely will change higher education,” says Barry Fishman, U-M associate professor of learning technologies. “The questions are what will change and for whom?” Fishman, whose research interests include video games as model learning environments and the use of technology to support teacher learning, served on a U-M committee that examined the ramifications of joining Coursera and its massive online open courses, called MOOCs.
“I don’t think MOOCs will lead to radical changes in the nature of education at Michigan. The core experience of being on campus, meeting with faculty, and working with other students will stay familiar,” Fishman says. “But it will be enhanced and extended. Learning will extend beyond the classroom in more and increasingly better ways.”
Fishman doesn’t think Coursera is a threat to any of the 50 top universities in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. However, those schools educate less than 5 percent of the nation’s college population. “Free online education might disrupt the core business model of some lower-tier institutions,” Fishman predicts. “There are a lot of students attending small, specialized, or for-profit institutions who may realize that free or low-cost online learning offers a better option.”
Coursera, edX, and Udacity are similar in that they take the core of most large courses—the lecture—and make it available through online videos. “The content may be high-quality, but pedagogically speaking, it is not yet that exciting,” Fishman says. “As more of our faculty continue to experiment with Coursera and similar platforms, we’ll start to see more innovation, both online and in our on-campus classrooms.”
At her Leadership Breakfast last October, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman stressed the importance of the University’s participation in Coursera.
“Global impact is why we chose to be the first public university in Coursera, the massive online learning community. And the key word here is massive,” she said. “These courses are free, and they give us a way to connect with new students, whether in Michigan or Macedonia. Coursera fits neatly with our public mission of sharing knowledge. We are also optimistic that it will help transform our classroom pedagogy as well.”
Today, more than 2 million students, mostly from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, enroll in Coursera courses. “Most are in their 20s and 30s,” Ng says. “But we have students in all age categories, from high school students to people in their 80s and 90s.”
COURSERA LAUNCHED with content from U-M, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford. The consortium of providers has grown to more than 60 institutions, including Columbia, Duke, Johns Hopkins, several University of California schools, the University of London, the University of Melbourne, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington.
U-M’s relationship with Coursera began early last spring when Martha Pollack, the University’s vice provost for academic and budgetary affairs, asked a few professors to develop Coursera offerings. Since then, a number of faculty members have expressed interest in creating such courses, she says. “Most students we’ve heard from also are excited that we’re taking leadership in this space. They understand we’re not giving away what students pay tuition for. A Coursera class is not the same, at all, as getting face-to-face time with a faculty member.”
Coursera offerings range from computer science, economics, finance, and mathematics to data analysis, humanities, medicine, and the social sciences. Most of U-M’s initial courses have been in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. “We’re committed to a diversity of offerings. Our goal is to have a set of courses that reflect the University’s breadth,” says Pollack, who notes that a faculty advisory board has been appointed to select future courses.
“My Coursera course is not dramatically different from the other finance classes I teach,” Kaul says. “The main issue was determining at what level to teach. I usually don’t think in terms of undergraduate or graduate education. I think about what students need to know about finance.” However, he notes that there are subtle differences between his live and Coursera courses.
“I am excited, very extemporaneous in my on-campus classes,” Kaul says, winner of six teaching awards. “The process of writing down my main points for Coursera forced me to be a better teacher. Because it is more systematic, my online class might work better for a student who is very methodical and prefers a logical, quiet approach to learning.”
Kaul, though comfortable lecturing before a camera, says he missed the physical presence of students when recording for Coursera. “I forced myself to think I was teaching one person so it really didn’t matter how many people were watching.
“It was a great learning experience. The Coursera technology takes care of everything, including grading quizzes plus the final exam. Even with thousands of students, the classes are not chaotic.” He envisions making his new Web-based materials available to on-campus students to help them learn the basics so they can spend class time on more difficult concepts.
Classes being developed using Coursera’s free tools align with the University’s goals to expand the interactive nature of campus teaching and bring more hands-on, discovery-based activities into class, Pollack explains. She experienced Coursera firsthand when she took Kaul’s finance course. Of the 130,000 who signed up for that course, 83,000 students watched at least one of Kaul’s videos and 44,000 took one or more quizzes and the final.
“Even if only 5 percent completed the whole course, we’re talking about more than 6,000 students,” Kaul predicts.
Across the board, Ng says, about 30 percent of people who sign up for a class and finish the first assignment actually complete the course. The completion rate is about 9 percent for all people who sign up, which includes many who register just to check out a course.
Tim O’Brien, U-M online-course production coordinator, has requested that Coursera work on a mechanism that would allow students to indicate when they sign up if they intend to earn a statement of accomplishment or are auditing.
In addition to its video lectures with quizzes and assignments and online forums, Coursera is blazing new trails with features such as peer assessment, O’Brien says. He anticipates most U-M Coursera courses will have a shelf life of several years. Some, like English Professor Eric Rabkin’s “Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World” could run longer because the material is not likely to change.
THE UNIVERSITY’S INITIAL INVESTMENT IN COURSERA HAS BEEN MODEST, Pollack notes. It hired O’Brien in July and purchased cameras and editing equipment. Although the first set of U-M Coursera instructors received a modest supplement to serve as guinea pigs, going forward, faculty members won’t receive added compensation for their Coursera contributions.
“Coursera doesn’t require a complex studio. A key challenge is maintaining a quiet location to avoid background noise,” says O’Brien. “We’re working on identifying a location to set up some small studios and editing rooms, which will become the hub of activity for Coursera production.” The facility also will be used to produce other online resources for on-campus classes and continuing education, he notes.
Student videographers and editors and other U-M staff helped produce U-M’s initial Coursersa offerings. Currently, a team of students works under O’Brien’s supervision to produce most courses. Most Coursera videos average 12 to 15 minutes in length. “We’re trying to offer the content in small chunks so a Coursera student can watch a segment on a coffee break,” O’Brien says.
Some professors, including Charles Severance from the School of Information and Scott Page, director of U-M’s Center for the Study of Complex Systems, recorded their own courses using a webcam. Lada Adamic, who won the University’s 2012 Henry Russel Award for pioneering research on social and information networks, taught her “Social Network Analysis” course while she was on sabbatical at Facebook in California in 2012. She thinks MOOCs like those offered through Coursera are especially useful for busy professionals who want to probe a subject or polish skills.
Matt Nolan, ’03, JD’06, agrees. He took Kaul’s “Introduction to Finance” course with his wife, Nina, and estimates he spent four or five hours a week watching videos, taking notes, and doing homework.
“Even though we didn’t have a formal background in finance, it was attainable. Professor Kaul focused on broad concepts. He taught us to think about life through the lens of finance, which impacts broader decision-making. I’ll probably retain some of the formulas, but the broader concepts like value creation, prioritization, and judging value by comparison to the next-best alternative are things anyone can use, and that will stay with me. This course definitely will help me in my job,” says Nolan, who is in-house counsel with Dow Corning in Midland, Michigan. “Nina and I both like to spend time continuing to learn, particularly with the economy where it is, where it is likely to be, and with continuous learning and development so crucial to succeeding.”
Although he doesn’t foresee a day when online learning replaces the traditional college classroom, Nolan says, “I hope online education continues to move in this direction. I appreciate Coursera and U-M making it available. This is a fantastic resource.”
Brian Kinsley, ’02, has taken five Coursera computing courses. The majority offered statements of accomplishment, important to Kinsey because “they offer proof that you attended the class. You weren’t just watching a professor on YouTube. I felt like I was interacting with the professors and other students.”
Kinsley, who lives in Ann Arbor, owns an online woodcraft business that sells tables, lamps, frames, and birdhouses. His goal is to earn a master of science in information from U-M’s School of Information. In the meantime, he has registered for more courses, including “Creative Programming for Digital Media and Mobile Apps” from the University of London and “Science, Technology, and Society in China 1: Basic Concepts,” offered by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
“I think this is the future of higher education. It is a way to access great educational programs without a building. You just have to log on a computer,” says Kinsley.
Alumni like Nolan and Kinsley are part of the group of learners that Coursera seeks to attract. “U-M has a very engaged alumni base,” Kaul says. “I hope more alumni, undergraduates, and prospective U-M students will use this technology to connect with the University.”
Antioch University, by special arrangement with Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania, recently launched a pilot program to award academic credit for Duke and Penn MOOCs through Coursera. However, the majority of Coursera students who meet course requirements will receive statements of accomplishment, not academic credit, O’Brien says.
“I think it will stay that way for awhile,” Kaul predicts. “It is too early to tell where the world will take us. The value of certification is still to be determined. Ultimately, the value will depend on what people do with what they learn.”
Mary Jo Frank, MA’94, is a freelance writer. She has worked at U-M as a public affairs specialist, editor of Dividend magazine and the University Record, and as a speechwriter.