Coursera expands his push in online degree partnerships with traditional universities, this time with the first Ivy League degree from the MOOC provider.
The new master’s degree in computer science and information technology from the University of Pennsylvania‘s School of Engineering and Applied Science will be the engineering school’s first fully online degree. The program is for adults who are unable or unwilling to enroll in the established version of the master’s degree on Penn’s campus and who wish to work in software development or high-demand fields such as bioinformatics, medicine, finance and telecommunications.
“This is a significant expansion of what we can do,” said Wendell Pritchett, rector of the university. He said the new online degree is designed to attract non-traditional students “who are talented but cannot join us on campus.”
The total tuition and fees for the new master’s will be $26,300, about a third of the price of the campus version of about $75,000. Penn officials said the relative affordability of the degree was due to the online delivery method with Coursera.
The company made a lot of noise after its creation six years ago. But the MOOC craze faded over the next few years, as predictions of free online courses replacing degrees quickly crumbled as Coursera and Udacity scrambled to find business models that worked.
The two companies and edX, the nonprofit MOOC provider founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, experimented with their offers, in particular by placing more emphasis on in-company training.
A major development came in 2013, when Udacity partnered with the Georgia Institute of Technology to create a fully online computer science master’s degree. Thanks in part to a $2 million gift from AT&T, the total tuition for the degree is approximately $7,000. The program is widely regarded as a Success. It enrolled 6,365 students last spring, making the degree program the largest computer science master’s degree in the country and, arguably, the world.
A next iteration for MOOC providers, largely led by edX, was the launch of courses bundled as short-term degrees that can lead to university partner credits. The so-called MicroMasters from edX are expanding, while Udacity and Coursera have created similar offerings, called nanodegrees and specializations, respectively.
Coursera and edX also now offer degrees with their university partners, serving as a form of online program management (OPM) provider, although charging less than the 60% or more reduction in tuition revenue that some OPMs charge. (Coursera did not provide revenue-sharing numbers.) The company’s platform now includes 10 master’s degrees and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, University of Michigan, Arizona State University and others. Both Georgia Tech and edX offer a master’s degree in analytics, with a dozen other edX degree programs in the pipeline, though not necessarily with Georgia Tech.
Penn was an early partner and investor in Coursera. Its Wharton School of Business offers several Coursera specialization course bundles. And while the university currently offers three online degrees, including a master’s degree in healthcare innovation, Pritchett predicted the new computer science degree would become Penn’s largest online program.
Some faculty members and others at the university were skeptical of online education during the early days of the MOOC, Pritchett acknowledged. But those doubts have faded. “There is enthusiasm for online education,” he said, calling the change on campus a “radical change.”
On-ramp for non-traditional students
Penn’s partnership with Coursera is an important part of how the university hopes to reach more adults who can’t afford to come to Philadelphia for a master’s degree.
The new online degree, like its on-campus counterpart, does not include any computer science prerequisites. This allows students from a wide range of academic backgrounds to pursue careers in technology. A Coursera spokesperson said the master’s degree is “specifically designed for people who are making a career shift.”
At the same time, Penn said the six-course, four-elective program would be as rigorous as the on-campus version and also feature highly selective admissions. After graduating, online students will be official Penn graduates, with access to career services and networking opportunities.
While enrolling, however, the university said online students will benefit from the flexibility built into the Coursera platform.
The online degree will include self-paced elements, such as the ability for students to access classes at night or on mobile devices. The platform also allows professors to create programming assignments that combine automated and peer grading, as well as grading by teaching assistants and on-campus faculty members. But students will be able to participate in regular live video office hours with professors who teach on campus.
“This degree represents the democratization of computing,” Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda said in a written statement. “It puts a world-class Ivy League degree within reach of people of all backgrounds, from anywhere in the world.”
A big part of Coursera’s appeal is the platform’s marketing boost and its 34 million users can donate to a degree program. The company’s MOOCs and specializations offer prospective students a low-stakes introduction to the type of courses they would need to earn a degree. The university can also benefit from these first impressions.
“It allows them to get a sense of what we’re doing, and us to get a better sense of their skill set,” Pritchett said.
Illinois offers three master’s degrees through the Coursera platform. Its master’s degree in computer science and business administration has the highest enrollment of any graduate program at the university.
Prospective students can take two open online courses on Coursera as an introduction to the curriculum, said John C. Hart, an Illinois computer science professor and director of online and professional programs in computer science.
“They teach the same material at the same level,” Hart said.
If MOOC students pass these courses and are admitted to the master’s program, they can resubmit material from both courses while taking a final to earn four credits toward the degree.
The total price of tuition and fees for the Illinois master’s degree in computer science is $21,000, less than half of what on-campus students pay at the university. Students have the option of going through the curriculum quickly or taking one course per semester. And if they take a semester off, online students don’t have to pay tuition or fees.
“Being a full-time student is a privilege,” Hart said. “A lot of our students don’t have that privilege.”
More than half of prospective students who apply to degree programs on Coursera enroll in open MOOCs first, the company said. This helps partner degree programs charge less because they leverage MOOC students, which can reduce marketing and student acquisition costs.
Hart and Pritchett said their universities are committed to preserving rigor and selectivity while opening access to more nontraditional students.
“People come to this degree for the Illinois brand,” Hart said. “We make sure it meets campus standards.”
Penn officials have predicted that the online version of the computer and technology master’s degree could attract a higher percentage of domestic students than its on-campus counterpart, in part because it will appeal to those with full-time jobs. Students will be eligible for an institutional scholarship, depending on the university.
And Pritchett said he was confident the online degree would be valuable in the job market. For example, he said graduates should apply to local telecommunications employers and Penn Health System, one of the area’s largest employers.
“I’m not sure there’s an area where those skills aren’t needed,” he said.
