As coronavirus continues to force the closure of colleges and many other entities, schools are diverting toward an online approach to education.
If it’s your first time taking classes online, fear not, it’s a very straightforward process.
Most online courses require between 15 to 20 hours per week on a variety of coursework. These assignments range from readings, video lectures, and links to online literature that often prompt online discussion-board submissions.
Many professors will require both a certain number of discussion-board posts per learning unit as well as mandatory interactions with other students’ posts by making discussion threads.
That comes in addition to papers, reflection pieces, and other assignments more in line with the discipline that’s being pursued.
Virus or no virus, the advantage of taking classes online is the flexibility with hours. Besides meeting deadlines, coursework can usually be completed at a time of the student’s choosing — so no more 8 a.m. lectures to go to.
In the wake of the mass closures of schools nationwide, Coursera has set up a special online learning program for colleges that have physically shut down for coronavirus precautions.
Partnering with many of the closed colleges, Coursera is offering access to 3,800 courses and 400 specializations with up to 5,000 online class licenses for enrolled students at impacted schools.
Enrollment to the program is open until July 31 and students have until Sept. 30 to complete the online workload with the option of month-to-month extensions if needed, according to the online learning portal.
It also features enterprise-level administration tools and analytics for professors along with other online support resources.
“As a global learning platform and community of the best universities in the world, we have an opportunity to offer assistance to our fellow educators staring at the prospect of closing their campuses and searching for ways to mitigate the impact on their students,” the Coursera website indicates in wake of the sudden need for online learning.
Currently, the program is more oriented toward classes in the US but the academic hub “is continually exploring options to expand access and we hope one day to offer unrestricted access throughout the world.”
To learn more about the program in detail, Coursera will be offering a webinar on March 24 at 1 p.m. ET.
