More leading universities are offering free online courses through the fast-growing education platform Coursera.

The new partners include Brown, Columbia, Emory, Vanderbilt, Berklee College of Music, as well as Universities in London, Canada, Hong Kong and Australia.

The new partners boost the number of classes to 200 that are open to anyone with an Internet connection. With "The Science of Gastronomy" offered from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and "Financial Engineering and Risk Management" from Columbia University, many of the Coursera offerings are pushing the boundaries of what was thought to be possible to teach online.

(READ the AP story from the Washington Post)