July 21, 2015 - Beijing, China - Peking University is now the first mainland Chinese university to launch a Specialization on Coursera with a final project developed in collaboration with an industry leading company. Tencent has partnered with Peking University to help create the final project for its Fundamentals of Programming and Algorithms Specialization starting today on Coursera, the world’s largest open online learning provider with more than a million registered learners in China.
Peking University is pioneering the future of high quality and accessible online education in China with it’s first Specialization that is expected to enroll hundreds of thousands of learners around the world. Designed to open access to career-relevant education, Coursera Specializations are a series of courses that help learners master a new skill with the best of university teaching and the real-time market perspective of top industry partners. Access to all courses is free, while a small fee is required to participate in the final Capstone Project and to earn a certificate signed by Coursera and the university.
PKU’s Fundamentals of Programming and Algorithms Specialization was developed for beginners, giving learners a foundation in computer programming, one of the most in demand skills from employers. The Specialization consists of six courses that learners can start anytime and complete at their own pace, followed by an applied, industry relevant Capstone Project. The course series covers fundamentals like Introduction to Computing, C Programming, C++, Algorithms, Basic Data Structures, and Advanced Data Structures and Algorithms.
“We look forward to helping Chinese people of all backgrounds gain essential computing skills for today’s workforce in collaboration with Tencent and Coursera,” said Professor and Head of MOOC initiatives Li Xiaoming of Peking University. “Peking University views online education as an opportunity to open its doors to the world. The professors of this Specialization will teach more students in just a few months on Coursera than they have in an entire career in the classroom.”
In order to help train the workforce of tomorrow, Tencent has joined Peking University and Coursera to help create the Capstone Project that learners can add to their portfolios demonstrating industry proficiency to potential employers. In this project, learners must build a search engine and deploy it on Tencent’s Cloud Platform. Tencent will also offer technical support and guidance, as well as use of its natural language processing platform, nlp.qq.com. Tencent will offer prizes and recommend potential internship opportunities to a handful of top performers in the Specialization.
“The growth of China’s economy relies on the training of skilled software developers who build the next great technology breakthroughs,” said Juliet Wang, Vice President of Tencent, “We look forward to contributing Tencent’s innovative technology and professional expertise to empower talents with the relevant skills that will make them valuable employees in the field.”
On Coursera, companies can now play an active role in educating aspiring professionals throughout their careers. In a job market that is increasingly filled with job descriptions that didn't exist a decade ago, workers and employers alike are recognizing the value of online certificates.
"Approximately half of Coursera's Chinese learners come to us seeking knowledge to boost their careers," said Rick Levin, CEO of Coursera and former President of Yale University. "Many of these learners didn't have the chance to attend a leading institution like Peking University, and others are several years out of college and need a way to gain essential new skills without dropping everything to go back to school full time. A Coursera Specialization is their chance to supplement the latest knowledge from universities with projects developed by companies at the top of their fields."
Coursera is also deepening collaboration with Tencent on other fronts. Earlier this month, Coursera launched its official account on WeChat, Tencent’s flagship mobile messaging app with more than 600 million active users in China and beyond. In addition, Coursera learners can now share the courses they are taking on their WeChat “Moments” feed, joining Facebook, Google and Twitter as the first Chinese app be featured this way.
About Peking University
Founded in 1898, Peking University (PKU) is the first national comprehensive university in China. For the past 117 years, with its hundreds of thousands of outstanding alumni, Peking University has made prominent contributions in the humanities and sciences to further China's prosperity and progress. With over 3000 faculty members, Peking University offers excellence in teaching and learning. As ICT in education becomes a mainstream, Peking University is determined to make its education openly accessible to students in China and around the world.
About Coursera
Take online classes and earn certificates from over 120 top universities and educational organizations. Coursera partners with schools internationally like Stanford, Yale, and Princeton as well China’s top schools like Peking University, Fudan University, and Shanghai Jiaotong University to offer hundreds of courses in topics from computer science to philosophy and beyond. Whether you are pursuing a passion or looking to advance your career, Coursera provides open online education for everyone. For more information, visit www.coursera.org.
About Tencent
Founded in November, 1998, Tencent, Inc. has grown into China's largest and most used Internet service portal. Tencent is providing value-added Internet, mobile and telecom services and online advertising under the strategic goal of providing users with "one-stop online lifestyle services". Tencent’s leading Internet platforms in China – QQ Instant Messenger, WeChat, QQ.com, Tencent Games, Qzone, andTenpay – have brought together China's largest Internet community, to meet the various needs of Internet users including communication, information, entertainment, and others. The development of Tencent has profoundly influenced the ways hundreds of millions of Internet users communicate with one another as well as their lifestyles. It also brings possibilities of a wider range of applications to the China’s Internet industry.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-07/21/c_134431697.htm
Source: Peking University Mooc Team
Edited by: Zhang Jiang
