Minnesota law requires that the Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE) give approval to any free online courses made available in the state, for state residents, officials have confirmed to Campus Reform. The law has been in place for years, but it gained notoriety this week after a small online education institution, Coursera, claims they were informed by OHE, the same branch of government that administers financial aid for state schools, that they operating illegally by offering free online courses. Coursera, which offers online classes on a variety of academic disciplines, claims on its website that they were “informed by...