Dive Summary:
- MOOC provider Coursera announced Wednesday that that it plans to launch free professional development courses for K-12 teachers.
- As part of the effort, the startup is partnering with numerous schools of education, including those at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia, as well as other institutions and museums like the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art.
- The new courses will make it possible for individual teachers to focus on topics and areas of expertise most relevant to them, and they will follow the same format as other Coursera MOOCs with a peer grading model and a $30 to $100 "Signature Track" in which participants verify their identity and receive a certificate upon completion.
From the article:
... “We looked at our technology and realized that for 7-year-old kids, streaming university content for them wasn’t going [to be effective]. But the lever for that 7-year-old kid may be to help them get a better teacher,” said Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng. ...
