12 Years of Extending Rice's Global Reach and Reputation Through Coursera

This year, Rice celebrates 12 years of expanding Rice University’s global reach and reputation through Coursera.

As of June 2024, Coursera has an estimated 148 million global learners (source: Presenting the 2024 Coursera Global Skills Report), allowing Rice University and other universities to tap into a vast community of people who value learning and are seeking to build practical workforce skills.

Here's a quick look at how the Rice + Coursera partnership has enabled Rice University to provide access to millions of learners eager to experience a Rice-quality education from wherever they are in the world.

We Expanded Access to a Rice-Quality Education: 4.2 Million Global Enrollments

Through nearly 100 online courses, Rice University has garnered almost 4.2 million enrollments from 2.7 million learners across the globe since the partnership’s launch.

Beyond the U.S., Rice’s top countries by learner reach included India, Canada, the UK, and China. In comparison with Coursera’s benchmark, we see Rice has an opportunity to attract more learners in the Americas, including Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia.

Rice attracts Coursera learners with bachelor’s and master’s degrees

In contrast with the broader Coursera learner base, Rice’s unique learner base on Coursera skews toward full-time working professionals who already have bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

This reinforces that Coursera is a strategic resource Rice can continue to use to reach a professional development audience interested in career advancement, career switching, or learning practical new workforce skills (e.g., upskilling and reskilling), an economic imperative as technology rapidly evolves and expands.

A Diverse Portfolio of Rice Faculty-Designed Courses

Rice University’s online courses on Coursera showcase our faculty's expertise and excellence across several in-demand disciplines.

Here are some examples of Rice’s most highly-rated courses, as defined by an “above average” 4.8+ / 5 avg. star rating:

• Principles of Economics: Intro by James DeNicco, 4.92 out of avg. 5-star rating.
• Medical Terminology I by Laura Kabiri: 4.87 out of avg. 5-star rating.
• Mindfulness and Well-being: Foundations by Elizabeth Slator, 4.81 out of avg. 5-star rating.
• Linear Regression for Business Statistics by Sharad Borle, 4.81 out of avg. 5-star rating.
• An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part I) by Scott Rixner , John Greiner, Joe Warren and Stephen Wong: 4.8 out of avg. 5-star rating.
• Introduction to Biology: Ecology by Scott Solomon, 4.8 out of avg. 5-star rating.

These courses reflect the high quality of Rice's online academic offerings and the university's dedication to academic excellence for all audiences and modalities.

Rice Owls Are Committed to Personal and Career Development: 10K+ Enrollments, Over 59K Hours of Learning in Coursera for Rice

Coursera for Rice provides Rice faculty, staff, and students with free premium access to 86+ Rice courses and specializations on Coursera.

This year, the Coursera for Rice program exceeded 10,000 all-time enrollments, with nearly ⅔ of those total enrollments coming from new learners and ⅓ of enrollments from returning (existing) learners.

Since its launch, the Rice community has dedicated over 59,000 hours to learning on Coursera for Rice. Many of these hours have been spent building high-demand skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, accounting, computer science and programming, data science, and statistical analysis skills.

For Rice's own faculty and staff, these skills can be applied to research excellence, digital transformation, and continuous operational improvements across the institution.

For Rice students, these skills and proficiencies position our community for hiring and help ensure Rice graduates are best equipped for modern labor demands -- locally within Houston, nationally, and globally.

Here’s a look into the top skills and proficiencies Rice has assessed over the past 90 days in the Coursera for Rice program:

Want to get involved?

Rice University’s digital learning initiatives help broaden learner access to our world-class faculty across discipline areas, while extending and building the university’s reputation for academic excellence globally. Learners everywhere seek high-quality educational content that helps them realize their personal and professional goals.

• Are you a Rice faculty member or instructor interested in working with us? Get in touch with Shawn Miller, Associate Provost for Digital Learning and Strategy.
• Are you a member of the Rice community interested in free access to Rice’s online courses on Coursera? Get started with the Coursera for Rice program now.
• Other questions or comments? Email riceonline@rice.edu.

Sources:

• Presenting the 2024 Coursera Global Skills Report
• Rice + Coursera Partnership dashboards, with data through August 26, 2024.