Vanderbilt made its first institution-wide foray into online learning by joining the digital learning consortium Coursera in September 2012. The free, noncredit courses are available to a worldwide audience and taught by leading Vanderbilt faculty members. One of the goals of faculty participating in Coursera is to bring what they learn from teaching students across the globe using a digital platform back into their classrooms at Vanderbilt. The university’s first two courses launched March 4, and three more will follow this spring and summer. More than 185,000 people have signed up for the Vanderbilt courses to date.