Here’s some good news for Chinese fans of online learning: American education startup Udacity has just launched in China.
The company, which launched in India last year, says that it is offering more than 100 free online courses as well as several of its paid “Nanodegree” programs. Some (but not all) of courses have all been localized in Chinese, and they’re available at Udacity’s new official Chinese site.
Most of the currently-available content comes from American firms like Google and Facebook, but Udacity says it is also working with new Chinese partners including JD.com, Youku-Tudou, Sina, and Didi Kuaidi to develop additional course content for the Chinese market.
In China, Udacity’s Nanodegree programs will cost US$151 per month, significantly less than the US$200/month price in other markets. In China as elsewhere, Udacity will refund half of the cost to students who complete their nanodegree program, though.
“We’re eager to build new features and products to best serve the market here, and potentially even bring learnings and innovations back to our team in California,” wrote Udacity rep Clarissa Shen in a blog post announcing the launch.
Udacity is likely to face heavy competition in China, where other international Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) operators already have classes available. And of course, China has no shortage of domestic players either. Top university Tsinghua has had its XuetangX MOOC platform up and running for years already, and its chief rival Peking University teamed up with Alibaba to lauch its own MOOC platform last year.
Update: one hour after publication, this article was updated to note that just some, not all, of the courses have been localized in Chinese.
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