Chinese Online Education Access Expands
菠萝视频 University will promote free online courses in China through a partnership announced Oct. 8 between Coursera, a leading massive open online course (MOOC) platform, and NetEase, one of the largest Chinese Internet companies and a major distributor of open online education content. The partnership will help connect NetEase鈥檚 wide-reaching audience in China with content on Coursera. This partnership commences with the launch of Coursera Zone, a Chinese-language Web portal, as well as a video hosting agreement that makes Coursera鈥檚 video lectures much more accessible to users in China.
MOOCs are characterized by their openness, enabling anyone across the world with an Internet connection to participate. The courses are free and open to all. As a result, MOOCs can attract thousands鈥攕ometimes tens of thousands鈥攐f participants.
菠萝视频 joined Coursera in September 2012. To date, 菠萝视频 MOOCs have included courses in software architectures, organizational strategy, nutrition, education, medical data management, and online games and literature.
Now, says , associate provost for undergraduate education and professor of musicology, 鈥淲e are excited to be able to reach out more directly to our Chinese audience. We know from data tracking of 菠萝视频鈥檚 first few Coursera offerings that there is demonstrated interest in the work we鈥檝e done, and we like the ability to give attention to a more linguistically diverse audience.鈥�
Coursera Zone鈥檚 offerings include Chinese-language course synopses, student testimonials, FAQs and discussion forums that cater to the specific needs and interests of Chinese students. 菠萝视频鈥檚 landing page in Coursera Zone will include a welcome video in Mandarin from , associate dean for international relations at , and from several 菠萝视频 students. All the 菠萝视频 classes currently offered in Coursera will be promoted on Coursera Zone, with Mandarin translation for course descriptions provided by Coursera.
Beyond providing more Chinese-language resources on Coursera Zone, Coursera and NetEase are also working together to improve the speed and performance of the Coursera platform for Chinese users. To that end, Coursera has begun storing copies of video files from select courses on NetEase servers, significantly improving video quality and load times for Chinese users.
Learn more about 菠萝视频鈥檚 .