In today’s digital age, everything is online and available with a few keystrokes or finger swipes. The Internet has bridged gaps in communication between people, and education is another avenue where online technology makes it easier than ever to get many people learning in the comfort of their homes. The latest player in this new wave of education is Coursera, a startup founded by Stanford computer science professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, that will make courses from top-tier universities available online, at no charge, to anyone with a computer and Internet.

The University is currently the only land grant university in a group of 19 colleges providing content to the site, joining the likes of Duke, Rice and Johns Hopkins University. So far there are 120 courses starting this fall, with many more to be developed as a part of making world-class lectures and assessment available across the globe.

“It provides access of information to a very broad group of people,” Chancellor and Vice President Phyllis Wise said. “It could be high school students who are looking around and seeing what the best universities are offering and becoming interested in the University of Illinois … Maybe even an older person with a job and wants to be promoted and their work says if they take a course like this they will be better qualified for promotion.”

Wise also said Coursera might be helpful for college students to explore a new topic before they enroll in a university course.

Mike Evans, organic chemistry instructor, said that another big target is international students who don’t have access to high-quality educational content but want to learn material for jobs or hobbies.

There are some downsides of having enrollment in the thousands, such as credentials and accreditation. With some courses, the student has the option of buying a certificate at the end of a course as a record. However, Evans said it currently would not be something that could replace a campus course, but perhaps with better technology and assessment something could be worked out in the future.

“Instructors can’t grade everything that comes through the pipeline, and Coursera has realized this right off the bat,” Evans said.

A peer assessment program trains students to grade their peers, with the instructors checking in on a random sampling basis to make sure things are graded fairly.

Coursera joins other already established online educational tools, including Khan Academy, MIT’s OpenCourseWare project and the University of California at Berkeley’s Webcasts. The difference, however, is that Coursera courses will require deadlines, evaluations, discussions and, in some cases, the student will be rewarded a certificate at the end of the course.

“There will be animated slides and examples; however, most of the learning happens when students engage with the material and interact with it,” said Lawrence Angrave, senior instructor in the computer science department.

He will be offering “Creative, Serious and Playful Science of Android Apps,” a course that teaches concepts in how to develop applications for Android platform.

“We are also putting together a development department so (students) can see these things happen as they are developed and get a feel for what it means to be an Android developer,” Angrave said.

The range of courses currently offered is very broad, from computer science and programming, to health and medicine, to history and economics. This University has already provided 10 courses including Android programming, organic chemistry, and microeconomics.

To make learning easier, Coursera cuts lectures into short segments and offers online quizzes, which can be auto-graded, to cover each new idea as the material is presented. “It’s all asynchronous; you can go on and watch the lectures whenever you want, and your time and my time are independent of each other,” Evans said.

Angrave agrees and adds that it will work very well for students who are self-motivated and demonstrate an early interest in a particular subject. But like Evans, he doesn’t think this can replace the traditional model of teaching, at least not any time soon.

“It’s not going to take away or remove the need for face-to-face teaching or people meeting on site. Instead, I see it as a wonderful supplement as part of courses at other universities and high schools,” Angrave said.

Overall, this new initiative still has some uncertainties and will depend on how students respond to it and how valuable it becomes. The one thing that is certain; however, is that it will get the University’s name out there on a larger platform.

“It’s still pretty new, even for the faculty,” Evans said. “Having the ability to have thousands of students critique our stuff is amazing because that will help us make the course better both for the Coursera students and the ones who take it on campus.”

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that there are 16 universities partnered with Coursera. This article has been updated to reflect the correct number. The Daily Illini regrets this error.