Coursera Accelerates India Growth Plans; Announces a Number of Initiatives

Coursera, Inc., one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, has announced a number of initiatives to accelerate growth and operations in India.

The company unveiled partnerships with top-tier Indian institutions (including IITs and ISI), announced new enterprise customers, and introduced several platform innovations to better serve Indian learners and campuses. Coursera also elevated its India operations to become the hub for the entire APAC region. With 12.5 million registered learners, India is already the second-largest market for Coursera. The country also ranked highest in new learner growth globally, adding 7.5 million learners since January 2020.

Commenting on the development, Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO, Coursera, said in a statement,

“The pandemic has dramatically changed the way we learn, teach, and work. Our strong momentum in India reflects the continued trend of individuals and institutions embracing online learning to develop skills for a digital future. We’re delighted to partner with the country’s top higher ed institutions to offer a greater selection of job-relevant content and credentials and launch new platform features that will make learning on Coursera even more accessible and personalized for Indian learners.”

Some of the announcements Coursera made include: 

• Partnership with four new higher education institutions in India, taking the total number of university partners to 10 in the country. New partners include IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati, Indian Statistical Institute, and Ashoka University.
• A Post-Graduate Diploma in Applied Statistics, a top-tier program from the Indian Statistical Institute  
• Five new certificate programs from Indian partners: 5G Technologies and IoT Post-Graduate Certificate from IIT Roorkee, VLSI Design Post-Graduate Certificate from IIT Roorkee, Digital Transformation Certificate from IIT Bombay, Power Electronics and Motors for Electric Vehicles (EVs) Certificate from IIT Bombay, Data-Driven Decision Making Certificate from IIM Kozhikode  
• A new course, Introduction to Basics of Ventilation, to train frontline medical staff who manage critically ill COVID-19 patients, from our latest industry partner, Philips India. 
• Localized home page for better discovery, geo pricing (most individual courses are priced 40% lower than global), five new payment options, and bulk pricing for avid learners.  
• New Coursera for Business customers including Reliance Industries Limited, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro GE Healthcare, Usha, ITC Infotech, Welspun India, StarTek, and Vardhman Group 
• New Coursera for Campus customers including UNext Learning, Nitte (Deemed to be University), Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, JIS College of Engineering, and Somaiya Vidyavihar 
• Setting up a ‘Learner Services’ team in India to better respond to learner needs globally. 
• New scholarships from industry partners: Microsoft, in collaboration with Women in Cloud, will provide 500 scholarships targeted at helping increase women representation in cloud computing; IBM will provide 500 scholarships towards various IBM Professional Certificates, Specializations, and courses on Coursera. 

Raghav Gupta, MD – India & APAC, Coursera, added,

“With the pandemic widening the skill gaps, there is renewed urgency for large-scale reskilling efforts. As the country embraces online learning at a faster pace, Coursera is committed to helping many more learners and institutions in India navigate change and disruption with access to world-class learning.” 

India also leads the world in the adoption of Guided Projects — a hands-on learning experience that enables learners to build a job-relevant skill in less than two hours. Half of the 2.6 million global enrollments for Guided Projects since their May 2020 launch have come from India. Coursera will continue to expand this catalog with Indian learners in mind, including Guided Projects from local employers.

About the Author

Author: Stephen Soulunii

No more a student, but love to learn. Not a teacher, but care about how students are taught. Not an educator, but want everyone to be educated. Not a social worker, but desire to see change. Not a reformer, but always want to see a better world. The author believes that only sound education can bring a better future, better world and technology can help achieve a lot in this field.

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