Coursera study indicates narrowing gender gap in online learning in India
Sep 16, 2021
New Delhi [India], Sep 16 : Women in India are learning online at higher rates compared to pre-pandemic, representing 44 per cent of new learners in 2021, up from 37 per cent in 2019, according to Coursera data.
With 4.8 million registered women learners, India ranks second worldwide for the highest number of registered women learners on Coursera.
The Women and Skills Report compares pre-pandemic enrollment and performance data with trends observed on the Coursera platform since the onset of the pandemic through June.
On the other hand, the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2021 indicates that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted women in India, with the country ranking 28 ranks lower than in 2020.
The reasons contributing to the widening gender gap include decrease in women's labour force participation rate to 22.3 per cent, women's inadequate representation in technology and leadership, and lagging female to male literacy ratio.
However, during this period, women increased their investment in learning new skills on Coursera despite the more difficult labour market conditions.
"Our research suggests that gender gaps in online learning narrowed during the pandemic, even as gender employment gaps widened," said Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera CEO.
"We are encouraged by how women are embracing online learning to develop new skills that can help accelerate their return to work and promote economic mobility."
The median age of Indian women learners on Coursera is 27, four years younger than the global median age of 31. More women are enrolling in STEM courses and entry-level professional certificates.
Top skills among Indian women show a balanced investment in human and digital skills. Four out of the top five skills are STEM skills, like computer programming (2M enrollments from Indian women), machine learning (1.9 M), probability and statistics (1.8M) and theoretical computer science (1.6M).
The top 10 skills from the past year also include critical business and personal development skills, like communication (1.5M), leadership and management (1.1M) and entrepreneurship (1M).
Top courses teach job-relevant skills, including Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) from University of Michigan, Machine Learning from Stanford University, English for Career Development from University of Pennsylvania and Financial Markets from Yale University.
With over 87 million learners and 5,000 courses on the platform, Coursera has one of the largest data sets for identifying and measuring skill trends. The Women and Skills Report includes data from 40 million new learners who registered during the pandemic between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021.
