UCI to offer free courses

UC Irvine is joining 16 top universities in offering free online courses to promote higher learning around the globe.

UCI announced Thursday its partnership with Coursera and contribution of six courses to Coursera’s online library of university-level courses from top institutions, including Duke, Princeton, Wesleyan, Stanford and Johns Hopkins universities.

“We are excited to join so many distinguished universities in contributing to free and open courses designed to benefit large numbers of students,” Gary W. Matkin, dean of continuing education, distance learning and summer session, said in a prepared statement. “UCI’s agreement with Coursera advances our ability to fulfill our public and land-grant missions of providing inexpensive access to high quality university education.”

The university is contributing courses in principals of public health, fundamentals of personal financial planning, microeconomics, algebra, pre-calculus, science from superheroes to global warming.

For a full list of course offerings, visit https://www.coursera.org.

— Britney Barnes

Twitter: @britneyjbarnes