Top Five U.S. universities will create free online courses for students worldwide through a new, interactive education platform dubbed Coursera, the founders announced on Wednesday. So, student will be able to do study at their end, which will save time.

Open courseware (OCW) — free online access to course materials — was introduced a decade ago by MIT, and institutions around the world have followed suit. Today, hundreds of colleges and universities offer free educational materials and interactive learning experiences. But last fall, Stanford and MIT took open learning to a new level.

Students can take online objective type and brief answer tests. Coursera will also introduce a peer grading system to evaluate complex work such as algorithms or essays.

Here students will not receive college credit but Coursera may grant ‘certificates of completion” or transcripts at some charges.

The company may also look forward to make profits by linking recruiters with the students who have exhibited their skills in a particular domain. In return the universities participating in the program will benefit by connecting with far located alumni, raising funds from obliged online students and improving their reputation.

Multiple-choice and short-answer tests will be computer scored. Coursera will soon unveil a system of peer grading to assess more complex work, such as essays or algorithms.

Students will not get college credit. But Coursera may offer 'certificates of completion' or transcripts for a fee. The company may also seek to turn a profit by connecting employers with students who have shown aptitude in a particular field.

For their part, participating universities expect to benefit by boosting their reputation overseas, connecting with far-flung alumni and - they hope - bringing in donations from grateful online students.

"It will increase our impact on the world," said Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania.

In trial classes Coursera hosted this year, the production values were a bit rough.

Scott Page, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, filmed his lectures for a class called Model Thinking in front of an unpainted door in an addition being built on his house. Interruptions forced him to reshoot several segments - and as a result, he looks undeniably grumpy in some takes.

A few of his online quizzes contain errors. His slides are sometimes hard to read. From time to time, his dog wanders into the frame.

Yet 30,000 people from around the globe stuck with the class week after week, doing the homework, watching the lectures and chatting with one another in lively discussion forums. "It's awesome," Page said. He has calculated that it would take 150 years of teaching in person for him to reach as many people as he did online.

A course Ng taught in artificial intelligence was just as popular: Nearly 25,000 students completed most of the work - and 13,000 scored high enough to earn a 'statement of accomplishment' from Stanford.

Some even translated the lectures into their native languages and posted subtitles. "People really get engaged," Ng said.

The concept does have pitfalls.

There's no way for professors to tell who is completing the work, so "doors are wide open for cheating," said Michael Winckler, a mathematician at Heidelberg University who took Page's course on models.

It's difficult, he added, to replicate the collaborative learning that takes place in a traditional classroom when students puzzle through problems together.

Still, Winckler was impressed enough with the quality and rigor of the online class to let his doctoral students count it toward their required coursework.

As online education matures, students may be able to build their own first-rate college education for free through sites like Coursera, said Richard DeMillo, director of the Center for 21st Century Universities at Georgia Institute of Technology.