NEW BRUNSWICK — Online courses are nothing new, having been around since late in the 20th century.

What Rutgers University will soon be a part of isn't yet as commonplace. The state's flagship university announced today that it is going to be a part of Coursera, which offers free, non-credit courses to anyone with internet access.

Rutgers is among 29 colleges and universities that have secured new agreements with Coursera through what's known as a massive open online course (MOCC) platform. Previously, 33 other schools, including Columbia, Pennsylvania, Brown and Michigan had been among the participants.

To start, Rutgers will offer three classes through Coursera, which are available to thousands of students at a time.

"These are exciting and rapidly changing times for higher education," said Rutgers President Robert L. Barchi in a statement. "Using massive open online courses, Rutgers will join our peer institutions in the U.S. and around the world in providing boundless access to top flight instruction in the numerous disciplines where Rutgers excels."

Coursera says it already has 2 million users.

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