Al Filreis Wins a Coursera Outstanding Educator Award

Al Filreis, Kelly Family Professor of English, Director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, and Faculty Director of Kelly Writers House, is the recipient of an inaugural Coursera Outstanding Educator Award.

Filreis was honored with the Transformation Award, given to an instructor who has contributed the most to the platform’s vision of enabling anyone, anywhere to transform their life through its massive open online courses, or MOOCs.

Filreis’ Modern and Contemporary American Poetry, known as ModPo, was among the first humanities courses on the Coursera platform. The introduction to poetry class emphasizes experimental verse, from Dickinson and Whitman to the present.

“Al is one of Penn’s MOOC pioneers,” says Deirdre Woods, executive director of the Penn Online Learning Initiative. “His engaging teaching style led the way for other faculty to be able to successfully teach difficult material online to thousands of learners."

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