Digital Literacies Final Project.pdf Apr. 2014 | Page 17

Connected Learning
• Academically oriented

Coursera is a platform for taking online courses provided by prestigious universities.
Individuals take these courses are not simply for fun, they would like to learn something
from these courses, whether for their interest or for their need to expand their skill sets.
Ideally, students can integrate their “interests and social engagement to academic
studies, civic engagement, and career opportunity” (Ito et al., 2013, p.3) on Coursera.
Besides the learning experience, students can also earn statement of accomplishment,
signature track, and even specialization certificate from Coursera.

There is an increasing
number of courses on
Coursera that can provide
students with signature track
by the university as well as
Coursera. A student may
spend $49 to get a certificate
from a top university for the
course he/she has taken.

Some universities even provide specialization
certificate if an individual completes signature
track for certain amount of courses. For example,
Johns Hopkins University offers Data Science
specialization certificate if one completes
signature track for all 9 courses and the
Capstone project.
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