UCC partners with online video education provider Coursera

The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) will be partnering with Coursera, an online, on-demand video education provider, to provide professional development training programmes.

Using UCC's online learning portal, learners will have access to a variety of specialised business and related programmes offered by United States (US) and other international universities and instructors who are linked to Coursera's platform.

Interactive video-recorded lectures will be offered to learners, who will be able to pursue their courses on demand from anywhere and at their own pace. Learners will be able to access their courses, not just from their computers or tablets, but from their smartphones, as well as from logging on to an Apple TV, which they can purchase.

Up to 1,000 courses will be made available initially to include:

- Entrepreneurship Launching an Innovative Business from the University of Maryland.

- Introduction to Corporate Finance from the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania.

- How to Validate Your Start - up Idea from the University of Wales.

- Sales Strategies - Mastering the Selling Process from the University of Chicago.

- Introduction to Computer Programming from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

- Human Computer Interaction from Stanford University.

Courses can be completed within four to eight weeks and each successful participant will receive certificates of achievement from both the relevant US university offering the course as well as UCC.

Coursera will incorporate its courses into UCC's undergraduate blended or hybrid degree programmes, commencing with the Bachelor of Science in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in September 2017.

Dr Winston Adams, group executive chairman of the UCC Group, said the partnership with Coursera would "support UCC in achieving its mission to rapidly increase access to high-quality learning opportunities for adult learners in Jamaica and across the Caribbean in a more convenient manner than the traditional face-to-face modality".