Coursera Receives Industry-first Authorized Instructional Platform Designation from the American Council on Education

Coursera is the first online learning platform to receive the Authorized Instructional Platform designation from the American Council of Education (ACE) for academic integrity, security, and rigor of its learning experience. This approval also boosts the market value of industry-authored courses and credentials on Coursera that have earned ACE credit recommendations.

“In a world of accelerating change, learners and institutions are looking for three things to ensure their online learning investment is worth it: high-quality education and training from trusted sources, a highly engaging learning experience, and a high level of assurance that learning will be recognized and valued by employers and universities," said Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera CEO. "The ACE Authorized Instructional Platform designation provides a powerful testament to the quality, rigor, and integrity of the online learning experience underpinning every assessment, course, and credential from the world’s top universities and companies on Coursera.”

As an Authorized Instructional Platform, Coursera’s assessment framework, course design, and teaching and learning experience meet ACE’s rigorous psychometric, technology, and information security standards. It also means that courses that obtained ACE credit recommendations off-platform will maintain their recommendations if added to the Coursera platform.

“ACE's partnership with Coursera will play an increasingly crucial role in assuring that non-traditional learning and industry training meets the rigorous standards deserving of academic credit," said Ted Mitchell, ACE President. “By providing a consistent and trusted framework for evaluation and value recognition, we can help industry and academia speak the same language, scale for-credit learning across entire systems of higher education, and equip large populations of students for jobs of the future.”

ACE Credit Recommendations: making it easier to give and get academic credit for skills training and online learning

In addition to reviewing the platform experience, ACE also evaluates non-traditional learning content, including online courses and industry micro-credentials, and recommends how many academic credits a higher education institution may recognize for each one. Today, over 25 Professional Certificates and Specializations on Coursera from top companies, including Google, IBM, Meta, and DeepLearning.AI, have earned ACE or European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credit recommendations.