The Engler College of Business recently learned that its participation in a pilot program involving the Coursera certification platform is getting attention. The College is one of five Texas A&M University System schools or colleges of business incorporating Coursera offerings in its classes. Collectively, the A&M System was named a finalist for the Outstanding Achievement Awards at the Coursera Connect Conference in Las Vegas. The System was given the Rising Star award as a first-year partner.
Dr. Mary Liz Brooks, Associate Professor of Digital Business and Communication & Barbara Petty Professor of Business Communication, is Coordinator of the Coursera program in the College. She attended the conference, which had representatives from academic units, corporations, and governmental agencies as participants.
Coursera offers a wide variety of professional certifications, with courses developed and provided by companies such as Google, Meta, and IBM, as well as selected universities. As such, they are a conduit of content created by others, rather than creators themselves.
The College is part of Coursera’s Career Academy, which includes a variety of courses, training, and certifications. Think of them as micro-credentials that do not replace higher education in our case, but rather augment the tools and skills a students leaves here with. We have 1000 licenses for students, faculty, and staff to enroll in anything within the Career Academy program.
During the first year of the program, the College posted more than 12,000 learning hours, which averages to more than 11 hours per learner. Students, faculty, and staff completed more than 2500 courses, and earned more than 200 professional certifications. There were also more than 700 guided projects.
Faculty embedded Coursera courses and certifications in a variety of ways. Some offered them as extra credit, while some made it part of their required course curriculum. In other instances, it was used in student organization challenges. There was College-wide participation across the departments and disciplines, as well as at both undergraduate and graduate levels. The courses are not meant to replace what a professor is doing, but rather to augment what they normally bring to the classroom.
Feedback from students and faculty has all been positive, with students specifically citing increased confidence. The certifications helped them in their job searchers, and beefed up their resume. The content is sufficiently high as to help set our students apart from others without this advantage.
Dr. Brooks recently appeared on Season 4 Episode 01 of the BuffSpeak podcast. You can listen here.