Coursera today announced that China, with one million registered users, is the largest market for its online courses outside of the United States.
Coursera initially operated in China through online translation partnerships with local companies before officially launching in late 2013. At last count, it had 13 million users worldwide.
During an interview with 36kr, Coursera CEO Rick Levin credited their impressive growth trajectory to an understanding that high quality education has the ability to cross cultural and geographical boundaries. Levin went ahead to elaborate on Coursera’s iMBA, suggesting that an increasing number of prestigious universities offer such programs and Coursera’s entry into this space will add greater flexibility for students. He added that the program offered in partnership with the University of Illinois, would be considered a potential marker of student drive and self-discipline, two qualities that would certainly not go unnoticed with employers.
Coursera operates in China through the help of local partner Netease, a major web company. Netease facilitates the Chinese operation by providing content on a separate portal and assisting Chinese-language students with navigating Coursera content.
Coursera is notably one offering among many in the Chinese market. Domestic competitors include the Tsinghua-helmed XuetangX, Chinese MOOCs a Peking University/Alibaba collaboration, and Kaikeba, a standalone local MOOC provider.
(Source: 36kr)
Editing by Steven Millward & Osman Husain
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