Today’s Seattle Times report that the University of Washington has signed on with Coursera to offer online education represents good news and a welcome extension of a model designed to expand access to higher education.

Coursera is “a huge experiment that is transforming the face of higher education,” said Daphne Koller, a Stanford University computer-science professor and MacArthur grant recipient who co-founded Coursera with fellow Stanford professor Andrew Ng. The startup has been offering free courses for about a year, beginning with courses from Stanford University.

The Times points out that this is not entirely new ground for the UW.

Like many colleges and universities, the University of Washington has been offering online courses for more than a decade; it offers 16 degrees and 38 certificate courses online — but none for free. This is the university’s first foray into free online education through what are called Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs.

Washington also took a big step last year by establishing the online Western Governors University-Washington.

The New York Times also covers today’s expansion of Coursera to include a dozen major universities. NYT columnist Thomas Friedman wrote about the program last May. He said,

Big breakthroughs happen when what is suddenly possible meets what is desperately necessary. The costs of getting a college degree have been rising faster than those of health care, so the need to provide low-cost, quality higher education is more acute than ever.

I previously wrote about the positive trend here. Glenn Reynolds offers a good reflection on the “higher education bubble” and how online access can expand alternatives.