Coursera, an online learning platform, is offering universities around the world impacted by the coronavirus free access to their online courses to help students continue learning as seamlessly as possible.
Universities can sign up to provide their students access to 3,800 high-quality courses and 400 specialisations from leading universities and companies.
Coursera chief executive officer Jeff Maggioncalda said the online learning platform is launching a global effort to assist universities and colleges seeking to offer online courseware in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
“Many universities in the impacted regions have suspended face-to-face seminars, closed campuses and are scrambling to find a solution to minimise disruption for their students.
“We will provide every impacted university in the world with free access to our course catalogue through Coursera for Campus. Universities can sign up to provide their students access to these online courses.
“Coursera will hold webinars and share more resources to help institutions looking to transition online during this crisis.”
Over the past few weeks, Duke University’s campus in China, Duke Kunshan, has swiftly adopted the effort by Coursera.
Maggioncalda said: “We believe that Coursera for Campus can be an effective resource to help higher education institutions respond to the impact of coronavirus.”
Institutions will have access to the courses until July 31, after which a month-to-month extension will depend on prevailing risk assessments.
Students who enrol on or before July 31 will continue to have access until Sept 30.