Stanford employees’ free access to online courses on Coursera helps them to develop new skills 

Mark Quaccia works in payroll at Stanford’s Redwood City campus. Ginny Smith leads an internal process improvement team as an administrator at Stanford Law School. Cassidy Ide oversees participant recruitment for pain studies at the Stanford School of Medicine, where A. Solomon Henry designs data systems. 

While these Stanford employees work in disparate locations, including remotely, and for different units, they have all taken multiple online courses on the Coursera for Stanford learning platform through Cardinal at Work — a benefit that has helped them develop knowledge and skills that they can apply in their professional environments. They are enthusiastic adopters of a platform that many staff, students, and faculty are trying out. Since the program was launched in December 2022, more than 3,000 Stanford “learners” have spent over 10,000 hours on Coursera courses, watching videos, reading course material, and taking assessments. One thousand eight hundred of those hours were in the last three months.

“A big part of our purpose is to help create the conditions where people can thrive at work,” said Elizabeth Zacharias, vice president of University Human Resources. “One way we do that is by building and fostering an environment where continuous learning, growth, and connections are possible. The wide participation in Coursera for Stanford reflects the culture we have at Stanford and the genuine desire for development within our community.” 

More than 4,000 non-degree offerings — a subset of Coursera’s commercial catalog of courses — are free to Stanford employees, students, and recent alumni through a SUnet login to Coursera for Stanford. The courses are created by university faculty from institutions around the globe, as well as by experts at several large technology companies.

Courses on programming, statistics, data analytics, and machine learning have some of the highest enrollments on Coursera for Stanford, followed by courses related to business and management. But there are many other topic areas, including Chinese (Peking University), human physiology (Duke University), the moral foundations of politics (Yale University), and international women’s health and human rights (Stanford).

For Matthew Rascoff, vice provost for digital education, making sure that Stanford staff had free access to a wide set of Coursera offerings unfolded almost as a matter of course, given his office’s focus. He came to Stanford from Duke University, where a similar program for staff received a strong positive response. So he and his team at Stanford Digital Education partnered with University Human Resources to implement the program at Stanford.

“Stanford employees choose to work here because it is a learning institution and want to be part of what makes it distinctive,” he said. “Coursera for Stanford helps everyone benefit from the knowledge that is created here and affords opportunities for them to improve their skills and advance their careers.”

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Mark Quaccia worked in construction as a sheet metal journeyman for seven years before earning an online degree from Southern New Hampshire University. After initial contract work for Stanford as a data management assistant, he now works as a payroll associate at the Redwood City campus.

“I was exploring all the benefits that Stanford offers, and I saw Coursera,” he explained. “And I really wanted to beef up my Excel skills.” Macquarie University’s courses on Excel matched what he was looking for; he liked their hands-on quality, pacing, and examples. He had tried courses through other platforms that were just videos, but he didn’t feel he retained information as well that way. With Coursera, he appreciated the exercises and assessments. 

The investment in learning Excel in greater depth has already helped Quaccia transition to a role with more responsibility. It mattered that the courses were free. “Otherwise I would have had to pay or subscribe for those Coursera courses myself, and I probably wouldn’t have done that,” he said. “It’s amazing that it’s offered, and I’m very grateful that it’s there.”

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Ginny Smith is a fan of the Career Success Specialization on Coursera, a set of 10 courses from UC Irvine that include overviews of project and time management, effective communication, finance, problem-solving, and negotiating. A senior administrative associate and process improvement specialist at Stanford Law School, Smith leads an internal team that strives to streamline all kinds of administrative tasks, from reimbursement to ordering lunches for large groups.

Smith holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from Virginia Commonwealth University; she studied criminology and psychology as an undergraduate at Auburn University. She likes to break down silos and make people’s jobs easier. She brought the Coursera course “Work Smarter, not Harder” to the attention of colleagues; now her department plans to work through its modules together during a training in the spring.

For Smith, the flexibility of deadlines in the online coursework is key. It allows her to turn away during busy periods and return when she is able. “It fits you, rather than you having to fit it,” says Smith. “I also like the fact that you get the certificate at the end. For me and my manager, I do like that it shows I took the time and completed a course. With regular Coursera, you have to pay for that feature. The fact that Stanford has opened this up for us so that we can earn those certificates without having to pay for them is a big benefit.”

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Cassidy Ide had taken Coursera courses before they started working at the Stanford School of Medicine in 2023. They earned a Google UX (user experience) certificate to complement the academic skills they honed while completing their doctorate in anthropology at the University of Edinburgh.

Ide’s work, overseeing participant recruitment for studies on chronic pain, involves synthesizing scientific information and communicating with a wide range of clients and colleagues. They create visual and written content for reports, flyers, and emails. Encouraged by their manager, they have used Coursera for Stanford to expand their knowledge of graphic design, programming, project management, and data analytics.

“My department [of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine] is super supportive of continuing education, which I love,” they said. And for them, the online courses meet a particular need. Ide has an auditory processing disorder, and if they mishear information as it’s presented, that can disorient them for the rest of a class. “Having pre-recorded content is perfect for me,” they said. “I can pause; I can go back. I always use subtitles.”

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For twenty-two years, A. Solomon Henry has designed data systems for the Stanford School of Medicine, initially for the cardiovascular group, and then, for the past sixteen years, for oncology. Henry holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engineering and a master’s in computer science from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. At the School of Medicine, he works with teams of biostatisticians and clinicians to collect and organize data from multiple sources, including external databases, so that it can be searched, studied, and interpreted.

A specific problem led Henry to turn to Coursera: the need to begin the migration of data from on-premises to cloud. Taken aback by the cost quoted by a vendor, he enrolled in Google Cloud courses on Coursera to learn how to approach the issue, effectively bringing the expertise in-house. While that experience predated the launch of Coursera for Stanford, it primed him to be eager to take the courses available through the program — and led to him earning the AI in Healthcare specialization, comprised of five courses from Stanford faculty. 

Asked what he would say to other Stanford staff about Coursera for Stanford, Henry had an immediate response. “If you have a passion for being a learner, this gives you a playground, an open door,” he said. “Roll up your sleeves and get in.”

To see the range of opportunities available to staff — including apprenticeship and leadership programs, synchronous online courses, and the communities of practice directory, as well as free online learning programs, visit the Professional Development page on Cardinal at Work.

Jenny Robinson is a digital community and social media specialist at Stanford Digital Education.

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