The University of Toronto has been a pioneer in the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) space, partnering with two platform providers, Coursera and edX since July 2012.
Our first two MOOCs were launched in October 2012; Learn to Program the Fundamentals, by Jennifer Campbell and Paul Gries and Neural Networks for Machine Learning (now retired) by Geoffrey Hinton, from the Department of Computer Science.
Over the past 10 years our institutional strategy remains focused on addressing the following goals:
- Contribute to the education community and the broader public through sharing of institutional expertise and open curriculum content
- Explore and evaluate a range of pedagogical approaches and open course platforms
- Leverage use of open educational resources through integration into University of Toronto degree program courses
- Showcase the University of Toronto’s capacity as a leading institution for teaching, learning and research
Here we wish to share highlights of our reach from over the past 10 years!
We have offered a total of 52 unique MOOCs across the following domains:
- Computer Science
- Business
- Health
- Physical Science and Engineering
- Social Sciences
- Personal Development
- Data Science
Over 4,000,000 learners from 182 countries have enrolled on our courses and they have earned over 300,000 certificates. On any given day there are over 1,000 learners active across our MOOC portfolio.
What do learners have to say about our courses?
“Before this course, I didn’t have a clue what Python was, and now I am eager to learn more. Thank you! Brilliant instructors and challenging problems.” From Learn to Program: The Fundamentals.
“This course was awesome. The way concepts have been explained exceeded my expectations from this introductory course of Psychology. This course is perfect for non-psychology students as well.” From Introduction to Psychology.
“Brilliant foundation to learn more about the key concepts in gender analytics, diversity, equality and inclusion. Engaging instructors and great examples.” From Gender Analytics for Innovation.
We remain committed to offering quality open courses and resources from leading instructors on our MOOC platforms and we are constantly expanding our offerings. Have a look at our courses on Coursera and edX and enroll in one yourself.
For details on our recent MOOC activity you can also read our latest report of activity from January 2021 – September 2022.
For more information contact digital.learning@utoronto.ca.