Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) in US – Coursera goes to train the unemployed

As Coursera has expanded to become a leading platform for massive open online courses, so has  its acceptance as a training ground for skills sought after by employers around the world. In this interview with McKinsey’s Michael Chui, Coursera CEO Richard Levin, whose background includes 20 years as president of Yale University, explores the platform’s potential to address unemployment concerns globally. He also notes that the virtuous cycle of Coursera users earning jobs based on their new skills has helped foster acceptance among employers. An edited transcript of Levin’s comments follows.

Interview transcript

Could online learning help lower unemployment?

Coursera or other providers are going to potentially have a major impact on resolving some of the structural unemployment concerns in our country, and abroad, by focusing on the right skills that are needed. In the United States, the remediation that’s required to solve that is probably at a more fundamental level of the educational system than the courses offered by the Yales and Princetons and Penns who are our partners.

But I think there’s room for teaching more basic skills through these methods. Some of our courses, which have to do with just basic reasoning—how to learn and how to think critically—we have a number of those courses, and they’re very popular. That’s an example of the kind of thing that could be very valuable to people who are trying to get enough traction to get a job.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Coursera takes aim at unemployment | McKinsey & Company.