Coursera

 
 
 

Vocabulary

goal (2)	virtually	go about your day
offer	wide-range	world class
check in	renowned	at your own pace
pace	reinforce	interactive
digest	alongside	break down
deadline	make sure	change the face
segment	available	stay on track
peer	feedback	discipline (2)
commit	motivate	in return
founder	co-founder	entrepreneur
context	accessible	equal opportunity
schedule	constraint	human right
prior	platform	scroll down
gender	demolish	artificial
array	mobility	social mobility
immense	employer	unemployment
rife	awesome	inequality
seek	employee	principle
field (2)	challenging

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 

 
 

Transcript

Imagine waking up one morning and saying to yourself: I really want to learn about psychology….math…medicine…
…art…or computer science from a world renowned university or organization.

With Coursera, you can.

Learn from anywhere: from your home…a coffee shop…the library…or as you’re going about your day — on virtually any device.

Coursera provides world class education offered by the top universities. Renowned university professors are working with Coursera, to make high quality courses on a wide-range of disciplines available to people all over the world.

Classes offered on Coursera are designed to help you to master the material. And you’ll be able to learn at your own pace, work on your own schedule, test your knowledge and reinforce concepts through interactive exercises.

Unlike traditional hour-long lectures, our courses break down complex ideas into short video segments that are easy to digest.

“We’re going to talk about text processing….”

Each course provides lectures, homework assignments and deadlines. To help you stay on track, we’ll regularly check in, ask questions to make sure you understand the material, and feel comfortable moving forward.

When you join a Coursera class, you’ll be part of a global community of thousands of students who will learn alongside you.

At any time, day or night, you’ll be able to ask questions, make suggestions, get feedback on course topics, both from peers and experts in the field.

Your classmates will motivate and support you in mastering the material; and you’ll be able to help out in return.

Daphne Koller, Coursera Co-Founder: “We in Coursera are a social-entrepreneurship company, that’s committed to taking the best education, and providing it to the best people everywhere in the world, regardless of any limits financial, geographical, social, or others.”

Andrew Ng, Coursera Co-Founder: “As a Stanford professor, I teach 400 people in a standard course. In 2011, I put my course online, and reached an audience of 100,000 students. To put that number in context, for me to reach a comparable sized audience, I would otherwise need to teach my normal, standard class for 250 years.”

We believe that education is a fundamental human right for each and every one of the seven billion people in the world.

Historically, not everyone had an equal opportunity to education. There are many limits people face across the globe: busy schedules…financial constraints…age…gender…
mobility…and whether or not you’ve had a prior education.

By creating a platform that is accessible to anyone, anytime, on virtually any device, we are demolishing barriers and limits that are known to be true in education.

Courserians are from everywhere and have a wide array of interests.

We asked a few of you how you use Coursera.

Student One: “I just checked my email, and I found that my school started offering Coursera courses. And I was looking at the list — and it’s like Christmas morning, like…I can’t even read the whole list. I keep trying to scroll down…and I haven’t made it to September yet. There’s just so many awesome courses here.”

Student Two: “These courses are free, of course. I’m taking all the courses related to neuroscience and artificial intelligence. I’m from Ecuador, and in my country those kind of courses simple don’t exist.”

Student Three: “I come from a southern European country were social mobility is very limited, unemployment is rife, and economic inequality very, very high.

So the value of the concept behind Coursera is to me, immense. It is the true and working application of the principle of equal opportunity.”

Whether you seek to improve your resume or advance your career or expand your knowledge or gain confidence from successfully completing a challenging university course, Coursera can help you achieve your goals.

We are changing the face of education globally. And we invite you to be a part of it.

 

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

 Questions

1. Through Coursera, people can study only computer science, math, history and psychology. True or false?

2. Is Coursera an online university or the online program of just one university?

3. How is Coursera convenient for people?

4. What are some limits and barriers of traditional universities for people?

5. What is a major difference between traditional lectures and online lessons?

6. Do students only listen to lectures?

7. What are the advantages that the students mention?

8. Is this more of a documentary or a promotional and marketing video?
 
 
A. Would you, your friends or classmates be interested in enrolling in an online educational program?

B. Are there any disadvantages to online learning?

C. Are universities and university professors for or against online learning? Are they very enthusiastic about online education?

D. What will happen in the future? Do you think online university will become more popular? Will it replace or partly replace traditional education?

E. What may happen to teachers, professors, schools and universities?

F. What should students, parents, teachers, professors and governments do?