Coursera Step Toward Monetization - Students Can Earn Verified Certificates

Coursera Takes A Big Step Toward Monetization, Now Lets Students Earn “Verified Certificates” For A Fee | TechCrunch: "Stanford professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng launched Coursera last year to give anyone and everyone access to courses from top-tier universities — for free, online. At launch, the startup offered courses from a mere three institutions, but today, things have changed, as Coursera’s platform now hosts over 200 courses from 33 top international and domestic schools and reaches over 2 million students around the globe. It has the makings of a transformational concept, offering content only from the most reputed departments, professors and universities, bringing that experience online and giving the key to the masses. . . . Beyond the fact that Coursera has raised $22 million in venture capital (the same is true of Udacity), MOOC platforms haven’t yet been able to create substantive business models. Perhaps unfair for Coursera, being less than a year from launch, but an oft-voiced concern nonetheless. Meanwhile, beyond Udacity and edX, startups like the open LMS platform, Instructure, and online degree program specialist, 2U, have made legitimate strides into the MOOC space, offering a blend of free, MOOC-style and for-credit courses. Both have partnered with top-tier universities, offer quality content and tech and have succeeded in setting the table for supplementary revenue streams. (“Supplementary” because both created their course networks as extensions of their original businesses — something Coursera doesn’t have the luxury of doing.) . . . "


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