University Of Chicago To Offer Free, Not-For-Credit Online Courses

By Amy Cavanaugh in News on Jun 9, 2013 9:00PM

The University of Chicago announced this week that it will offer free, not-for-credit, online courses later this year.

The courses, part of a partnership with education company Coursera, let faculty "experiment, on a voluntary basis, with different online venues that might provide additional reach for their teaching and research."

The first two courses will be taught by David Archer, professor in geophysical sciences, whose class will focus on global warming, and John Cochrane, the AQR Capital Management Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business, who will offer a course on asset pricing.

Archer teaches the global warming class twice a year. It's one of the most popular on campus, and attracts 200 or more students for each section. While he offers a version of the online course on his website, he says that few have completed it, and he wants to offer an enhanced version of the course through Coursera.

Cochrane's class was originally designed for doctoral students with background in micro- and macroeconomics, and he expects the course to appeal to a wide range of people, including those thinking about entering graduate-level studies in finance.