University of Virginia to offer four free courses online by Karin Kapsidelis

Photo: Karin Kapsidelis

Karin Kapsidelis writes, "The University of Virginia will open four of its courses to the masses next year through a digital partnership that will take Thomas Jefferson's academical village to the farthest reaches of the Internet."

Photo: Richmond Times Dispatch

U.Va. announced an agreement Tuesday with Coursera, the educational experiment started last fall by Stanford University that offers free classes from top universities in subjects that range from literature and the arts to mathematics and computer sciences.

Known as MOOCs, or massive open online courses, the partnership allows access to Ivy League instruction from universities such as Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. Tuesday's announcement added a dozen more schools, including Duke University, Georgia Tech and Johns Hopkins University.

U.Va.'s College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Darden School of Business will offer non-credit courses in 2013, but the exact startup dates have not been determined.
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Source: Richmond Times Dispatch