Coursera Case Study

Redesign the Service on Coursera - From Accessibility to Individualization

I. Introduction

According to Wikipedia, Coursera solves the access problem by connecting 10 million users with 839 courses from 114 institutions in October 2014 (“Coursera,” n.d.). Coursera achieved the first-step success by offering high-quality higher education resources to everyone for free since 2012. At the same time, accessibility brings Coursera various challenges like high dropout rate, poor assessment and low interaction. Based on analysis of the success and the challenges brought by Coursera- style learning environment especially the accessibility and the theoretical foundation of service design theory, the paper mainly explains why future Coursera should

According to Leber (2013), “as online education platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity burst onto the scene over the past year, backers have talked up their potential to democratize higher education in the countries that have had the least access” (as quoted in Xin, Debora & Casheena, Accessibility Section, para.1 ). MOOCs eliminate the requisite and cost of learning and also provide lifelong opportunities that match individual interest and career goal (Xin, Debora & Casheena,

Coursera cooperates with well-known professors from top universities and equally distributes education resources to potential leaners around the world. Professors record and share academic lectures on Coursera platform, then everyone can access to these videos with high efficiency and equality via Internet. It is nearly impossible for common people to access to such massive number of courses - 839 courses from 114 institutions (“Coursera,” n.d.) - at one time before the appearance of Coursera, which offers new learning possibilities and