​With Coursera Specializations, University of Illinois Will Offer Online MBA

MAKING MOOCS COUNT: ASU and edX aren’t the only MOOC degree partnership in town. On May 4, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign approved a partnership with Coursera to offer an online MBA starting in spring 2016. Through the iMBA program, the University of Illinois will deliver the material through “Specializations,” Coursera’s course sequences.

To earn credentials (but not academic credit), students can pay $79 per course for an identity-verified certificate. To get academic credit, students can apply to the university’s College of Business to pursue a full MBA. With the 18 courses priced at $1,000 each and the identity verification fees, an online MBA from the University of Illinois would cost around $20,000, compared to $22,000 tuition per year for in-person, full-time students.