Coursera and the American Council on Education (ACE) have announced that they will work together to determine whether a select number of massive open online courses (MOOCs) will be accredited. Currently, students successfully completing a course may receive a certificate of accomplishment but not college credit. Today’s announcement has the potential to make some completed Coursera courses eligible for college transfer credit at institutions choosing to accept the ACE recommendations.

 The evaluation process for selected courses is expected to begin later this month, although the specific classes haven’t been identified.

The Georgia Institute of Technology announced a partnership with Coursera last summer. Registration is open for eight classes led by Georgia Tech professors, and more than 141,000 are already enrolled.

"Today's announcements by Coursera and ACE to initiate credit equivalence evaluation is an exciting and natural progression of the ongoing experimentation with MOOCs,” said Georgia Tech Provost Rafael Bras. “Georgia Tech is proud to be among the pioneering leaders in this experiment. We seek to make quality content available to many around the world and to improve our outstanding residential education experience. At the same time, we will continue to address outstanding issues such as assessment, integrity and appropriate business models."

To read the ACE press release, click here.