The university's contract with Coursera will not be renewed. Access will end on June 30, 2024. Faculty and staff may still request access to Coursera courses for the time being, but please plan to bring your coursework to a conclusion by the end of June.
In partnership with Coursera, NKU is now able to offer faculty and staff a number of learning options through a curated selection of courses in a variety of subject areas, designed by top universities and companies around the world. You have the option of choosing a specialization--a series of related courses--or a completely stand-alone course. All courses are free* to NKU faculty and staff, fully online, and on-demand.
To learn more about the course selections or see the list of curated courses, explore the curated list. For additional details, refer to the FAQs.
To join the Faculty & Staff Learning Program and enroll in a course, please register and an HR staff member will connect with you momentarily.
*Please note: The curated list below includes links to the Coursera site, where you can sign up to take courses on your own, either free or by paying out of pocket. If you wish to earn a Coursera certificate at no cost to you, please do not register yourself through the Coursera site. Instead, contact HR to register and receive the use of an NKU license. If you register yourself and take Coursera courses for free, you will not receive a certificate, and if you pay out of pocket, you will not be reimbursed by NKU. The NKU Faculty & Staff Learning Program is only open to current employees of the university.
If you are NKU faculty or staff, please do not sign up for any of the specializations or courses below through the Coursera web site. Instead, register with HR to receive the use of an NKU license.
If you are not NKU faculty or staff, please do not submit your contact information to HR. Instead, email professionaldevelopment@nku.edu to learn about the other Coursera learning programs available to you.
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Coursera is a massive open online course (MOOC) provider that works with universities and companies to offer a wide variety of online courses.
As NKU faculty or staff, there is no cost to you as long as you contact HR to register for a course and receive the use of an NKU license. If you register yourself via the Coursera web site and pay out of pocket for a course, you will not be reimbursed by NKU.
The amount of time required to successfully complete a single course varies greatly, depending on the course workload and how much time you have to devote to it, but in general courses are between 3-12 hours. Each course description includes the estimated number of hours needed for completion.
You will have the use of a Coursera license for a set period of time, typically 90 days. During that time, you can take as many courses as you wish.
A specialization is a series of courses on a narrow topic. You may take all the courses in a specialization, or just the ones you are most interested in. For some specializations, you may take the courses in any order. For others, there is a recommended order you should follow. Some specializations include a capstone project, which should be attempted only after completing all coursework. The course selection curated by NKU also includes a number of stand-alone courses that do not belong to any specialization.
All courses are fully online and asynchronous (meaning that there are no set class times). Generally speaking, you can work at your own pace as long as you complete the course before your license expires. Some courses do have start dates and deadlines, but it is not uncommon to have the ability to reset deadlines within a course.
When you are ready to enroll in the NKU Faculty & Staff Learning Program, please register and a Human Resources member will connect with you momentarily. You will be assigned a Coursera license, and receive an emailed invitation from Coursera so that you can join the learning program and enroll in a course. Please do not sign up at the Coursera website without first registering with HR and receiving your enrollment instructions.
Once you receive your emailed instructions on how to enroll, you will have up to two weeks to enroll in your selected course. If you have not enrolled in a course at the end of the two weeks, your Coursera license will be revoked, and you will need to register with HR again if you wish to take a course.
Once you are assigned a Coursera license and sent an invitation to join the Faculty & Staff Learning Program, you will be able to access and choose from any course in the program.
For any questions: