UNC-Chapel Hill will start offering free online classes to the public this fall. The university announced Thursday it's partnering with the California-based company Coursera to provide four massive open online courses, or MOOCs.
"What we're hoping is that what we learn and what we develop through these MOOCs will help to enhance our face-to-face campus-based courses," says Carol Tresolini, vice provost for academic initatives at UNC.
"For example, learning materials that are developed for use in the MOOCs could also be used for on-campus courses."
UNC will open four courses this fall that cover subjects in public health, law, library sciences and music. Tresolini says they will not carry credit toward a degree. More than 60 other colleges offer classes through Coursera, including Duke.