On October 14, an agreement ceremony celebrating KAIST’s partnership with Coursera, an educational technology company that provides online courses, was held at the Business Center of The Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul. Through this partnership, KAIST’s lectures will be available all around the world on Coursera, and in turn, KAIST members will be given access to Coursera’s various courses and lectures.

Recently, there is a growing interest towards massive open online courses (MOOCs) and its providers, such as Coursera and edX. MOOC is differentiated from the traditional open courseware (OCW), which simply shares lecture videos, slides, and data on the Internet; MOOCs not only have improved quality of lecture materials and contents, but they also require students to submit registration, specification, assignments, and assessments to earn credits.

A social enterprise and the largest provider of MOOC in the world, Coursera is currently used by 107 universities and public institutions, including Stanford University, Columbia University, the University of Tokyo, Shanghai University, and the World Bank. Coursera has opened 453 courses and accommodates more than 4.96 million students.

Daphne Koller, Coursera’s co-founder, said, "We are honored to have so many brilliant minds working together to expand educational opportunities globally. To be able to offer courses from professors at the forefront of their fields to millions of people is truly remarkable, and our students remind us daily of the value of spreading this knowledge globally."

Starting from 2012, KAIST has been carrying out the Education 3.0 program, which incorporates advanced information and communications technology to create a more interactive learning and teaching environment for students. Under this program, students can study, participate in discussions, and solve problems with other students and professors online.

President Sung Mo Kang said, “This year, more than 60 courses at KAIST are being taught under the Education 3.0 program, and we received excellent responses from students and professors. Through the partnership with Coursera, we hope to expand our quality education globally.