MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA: Coursera, which began in January, is a web-based cooperative that offers free online courses from colleges all over the globe, as reported in the Wired Campus blog of The Chronicle of Higher Education.  The company recently announced that 17 new colleges, including the University of Florida, have joined their program to offer massive open online courses (MOOC’s) to students.  Each institution is encouraged to offer five courses to begin.  These courses are free, and at this time, the idea of giving certificates to students who successfully complete the courses is being explored.

The University of Florida will initially offer courses from its Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences, or IFAS.  It is unknown at this time whether engineering courses will be offered from the University of Florida.  The ISE Department at UF teaching one online course, Engineering Economy, at the undergraduate level and also delivers online graduate degree programs and certificates.