Online training service Coursera said it targets to expand its partnerships with schools, businesses, and government agencies in the Philippines as digital transformation and economic recovery continue to shape the country.

Philippine-based users on the platform grew by 28% in 2022, thanks to an additional 400,000 new learners, according to Coursera. 

“More digital data comes into the work that organizations do. More Filipinos go to apps now, so we have to adjust,” said Raghav Gupta, Coursera APAC managing director, in an exclusive interview with BusinessWorld.

He added that there are now close to 1.8 million Coursera users in the Philippines, of which 49% are men and 51% are women, indicating the highest percentage of women in Asia Pacific countries.

“Aside from technical skills, we see more value being placed in leadership skills to be built by everybody,” Mr. Gupta said, describing what their partners invest in.

Coursera’s partners in the Philippines include Ayala Corp., Bank of the Philippine Islands, and Globe Telecom, Inc., Mapua University, National Teachers’ College, and the Department of Science and Technology (DoST).

The program with DoST, geared towards workforce recovery from the pandemic, saw almost 75,000 learners come to the platform, clocking about 1.4 million hours of learning, according to the platform.

INTEGRATING NEW TECH
Now, Coursera is leveraging new technologies to improve learning for all its users, namely artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT and virtual reality (VR) applications.

Coursera Coach, a virtual coach that answers questions, gives feedback, summarizes lectures, and helps prepare for job interviews, is being piloted and will be available in the coming months.

“Our hope is that we progress online learning from passive and active to interactive. Coach is going to be available to everybody on the platform,” Mr. Gupta said.

Meanwhile, the platform is also piloting an AI course-building tool for teachers. It will basically be a content creation engine for teachers.

To ensure that learners won’t be getting information from just about anywhere, Coursera’s ChatGPT will only retrieve expert content from 200 top universities and 100 leading companies.

It will not just be any data from the wider internet, said Mr. Gupta.

Finally, he added that Coursera will be integrating VR into their courses, such as public speaking courses.

“If you want to practice, you can come in and choose an environment, like aboard room with 10 board members or an auditorium with 500 people — whichever environment that you must practice for,” he said.

These new features will be launched for the wider public within the next few weeks. — Brontë H. Lacsamana

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