Coursera, Inc. (NYSE: COUR), a leading online learning platform, has announced several new initiatives to improve access to high-quality education in India and better serve the local needs of learners and institutions in the country. These efforts include launching an extensive catalogue of learning content in Hindi and AI-powered features to make online learning more personalized and interactive. Now, top courses like Generative AI for Everyone from DeepLearning.AI, The Science of Well-Being from Yale University, Programming for Everybody from the University of Michigan, and What is Data Science? from IBM, previously only available in English, will now be available in Hindi.
The company also announced new enterprise and campus customers as institutions across the country embrace online learning to equip their employees and students with digital skills. With over 23.4 million learners and 57 million enrollments on the platform, India represents the 2nd largest market for Coursera globally.
Sharing his thoughts on the latest development, CEO of Coursera, Jeff Maggioncalda, said:
India’s ambition to become a USD 5 trillion economy depends on its ability to develop a skilled workforce and maximize its demographic dividend. Our goal is to make high-quality education available to everyone, no matter what language they speak, and today marks a significant step towards that goal. We have used the power of AI to translate over 4,000 courses into Hindi, giving learners in India unprecedented access and flexibility to develop skills for the digital future.
Here are the new initiatives and features Coursera is unveiling in India:
- Hindi translations: More than 4,000 courses are now available in Hindi, including some of the most popular courses in India, such as Supervised Machine Learning: Regression and Classification from DeepLearning.AI and Stanford, Financial Markets from Yale, and Learning How to Learn from Deep Teaching Solutions. Learners can access course readings, lecture video subtitles, quizzes, assessments, peer review instructions, and discussion prompts — all in the local language. Over 40 courses from top Indian educators, like Introduction to Programming from BITS Pilani, Leadership Skills from IIM Ahmedabad, and Trading Basics from Indian School of Business, will also be translated into 18 languages, including French, Spanish, German, and Thai, enabling India’s vision to become the global hub for education.
- GenAI Academy Launch: Designed to offer foundational literacy and executive education programs from top universities and companies, including Stanford Online, Vanderbilt, DeepLearning.AI, Google Cloud, and AWS. L&T is the first enterprise in India to launch Coursera’s GenAI Academy to provide structured digital literacy across its workforce.
- Coursera Coach (beta) for Coursera Plus subscribers: A GenAI-powered virtual learning assistant that provides personalized feedback, answers questions, and summarizes video lectures and resources. The coach will also support learners with interaction in the local language.
- Coursera Course Builder: Based on prompts from human authors, the AI-powered course-building tool will auto-generate content, including course structure, descriptions, readings, assignments, and glossaries. Companies and campuses can also use this feature for private authoring, using their internal experts to produce custom courses and blend them with recommended content from participating partners on Coursera.
- New and expanded partnerships:
- 45 Coursera for Business customers, including Aditya Birla Group, Tata Power, KPIT Technologies Ltd, and Bajaj Finserv, bringing the total to 140 enterprise customers in the country.
- 55 Coursera for Campus customers, including XLRI Jamshedpur, Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Alliance University, and Yenepoya University, bringing the total to 1,100 higher educational institutions in the country
- New programmes from Indian institutions:
- Specialization – Advanced Digital Transformation – from IIM Ahmedabad
- Degree – Master of Science in Information Technology – from IIIT Hyderabad
Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, India and APAC, Coursera, stated:
Emerging technologies like Generative AI transform learning, teaching, and working. With the surge in digital jobs and remote work, we are excited to empower Indian learners and institutions with several content and AI innovations to bridge the rural-urban gap and build an inclusive workforce.
Coursera was launched in 2012 by two Stanford Computer Science professors, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, to provide universal access to world-class learning. It is now one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, with more than 136 million registered learners as of September 30, 2023. The firm works with over 300 leading university and industry partners to offer a broad catalogue of content and credentials, including courses, Specializations, Professional Certificates, Guided Projects, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Institutions worldwide use Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, citizens, and students in data science, technology, and business.
