Covid-19 courses most sought after: Coursera

As Covid-19 has gripped the world, plethora of precautionary measures and developments are floating around on social media. To access factual knowledge from the scientists and academics, consumers turn to online learning platform Coursera to understand all about Covid-19 from the universities themselves.

For example, Imperial College London has launched a course to ensure a common person understands the global pandemic and can deal with it. No wonder it became a hit instantaneously. Since its launch on February 18, the course "Science Matters: Let's Talk About COVID-19" has become the most sought after course. Globally, in a month's time this free course has got 64,000-plus enrolments. In India, it is the second most popular course launched on Coursera in 2020 so far.

As people turn attention to their well-being, the other course gaining interest is "The Science of Well-Being" offered by Yale University. It received around 50 lakh enrolments globally in just three days (20-22 March). In India, over the last 30 days, its enrolments shot up by 625 per cent when compared with the preceding 30 days. Globally, during this period, the enrollments increased by 3,062 per cent. This has made it the fourth most popular course of all-time on Coursera now.

"These are credible courses and have put out a meaningful point of view on what exactly Covid-19 is, which is why people are signing up for it," says Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, India and APAC, Coursera.

As people get worried about the global pandemics and want to understand the do's and don'ts of it, the entire Public Health bucket of courses at the online learning platform has been receiving lot of interest for the last one month than ever before. In India, there was a 458 per cent increase in courses in last 30 days versus the preceding 30 days. The percent increase was even up to 800 per cent in certain affected countries.

In fact, users are particularly interested in understanding about infectious diseases and how they spread. The three top courses that have gained popularity are: "Epidemics - the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases" from The Pennsylvania State University; "Epidemics, Pandemics, and Outbreaks" from the University of Pittsburgh; "Epidemics" from The University of Hong Kong; and "Outbreaks and Epidemics" from Johns Hopkins University. Enrollment for these courses increased by 142 per cent, when compared the past 30 days with the preceding 30 days.

Coursera in India has 5.5 million registered users with 0.5 million new learners being added every month who have access to its 4,000 active courses and 400-plus specialisations.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus update: Odisha first state to set up 2 hospitals for COVID-19 patients

ALSO READ: Coronavirus Live Updates: Essentials, medicines to be available 24X7 in Delhi, Maharashtra