About a Fifth of Top New Online Courses Are Virus-Related, Says Search Engine

Online courses are “booming” as a “productive use of otherwise idle time” during COVID-19 lockdowns, reported Class Central Monday. The search-engine company for free online courses estimates enrollments exceeded 180 million this year. Technology-related online offerings, including for computer science and programming, were the most popular before the pandemic, it said. After COVID-19 forced quarantines and lockdowns, interest pivoted to courses in “soft skills and general topics,” such as personal development, art and the humanities, it said. About 20% of the 100 most popular free online courses launched in 2020 are directly related to COVID-19, it said. Johns Hopkins University’s "COVID-19 Contact Tracing" tops that list with more than a million enrollments, it said.