The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the New York Public Library is to team up with Coursera: “The partnership is part the MOOC company’s effort to build an infrastructure for in-person learning around its free online courses. Research has suggested that MOOC students who receive offline help earn higher scores on their assessments. Coursera is not paying the library to provide this service, says Luke Swarthout, the library’s director of adult-education services. The library plans to foot the bill for weekly discussion groups as part of its own public-service mission, he says, adding: “There’s no money exchanging hands between anybody.””
The library has been offering more courses, including CSS and web programming to adults, perhaps tying its educational mission to improving employment for New Yorkers. (The Library has also offered free job counseling including coaching and resume review at SIBL.)
