On April 27, online education startup and perpetual media darling Coursera announced the creation of the Global Translator Community (GTC), “a program designed to greatly expand the number of courses offering high-quality subtitle translations.” The GTC drew its inspiration from “learners spontaneously organizing to translate lecture subtitles for the benefit of their classmates.”

By organizing these efforts into a digitally hosted “community,” Coursera says, it aims to “empower . . . users to help us make education for everyone — regardless of language limitations — a reality.” Three days later, the company announced a new “partnership” with the New York Public Library and other organizations. The library will now participate in Coursera’s Learning Hubs program, designed to “give communities around the world the ability to access online courses for free, and also to engage with others in a blended learning setting.”

In other words, the Wall Street Journal explains, “[s]tudents will watch lectures on their own and then the library will provide classrooms for people who want to discuss the lectures in a group. The library will also hire a ‘facilitator,’ to help teach the class.”