Coursera is an online education platform that offers a variety of courses and certificate programs from top universities and leading companies. Coursera’s high-quality certificate programs help students earn college credits and professionals advance their careers and earn industrial recognition.
Learn more about Coursera and the types of courses and certification programs the platform offers, especially for IT professionals and students, in this guide.
Founded in 2012 by two Stanford professors, Coursera is a massive online open course (MOOC) provider and a leading e-learning platform. The company collaborates with over 250 leading universities and organizations to provide more than 5,000 online courses, professional certifications, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, and specializations.
These are some of the platform’s primary learning formats:
Creating an account on Coursera is simple and free of cost. After signing up, users can search for a particular course they want to take, or they can choose from 11 broad topics. The broad categories include:
Users can filter courses based on skills, job title, language, difficulty level, duration, and more. In the “About this Course” section, users can preview reviews, ratings, instructor info, enrollment info, syllabi, FAQs, and whether financial aid is available for the chosen course or not.
Though many courses are free to “audit,” verified certificates of completion and graded assignments come at a cost. Many courses are available to take any time of the year, while others have specific enrollment dates and follow a structured syllabus and outline.
Once users are enrolled in a course, they get access to pre-recorded videos by industry experts and professionals, student discussion forums, assignments, quizzes, and exams. Many courses are part of Coursera Specializations. If a user completes all courses in a Specialization, they become eligible for the Specialization Certificate.
Coursera offers around 2,000 free courses, and paid courses start at $9.99. The platform offers pay-per-course as well as a subscription-based pricing plan to users. A 7-day free trial is also available for specializations and professional certificates.
For teams and smaller businesses, Team Package costs $399/user/year with access to over 4,000 courses from top universities, guided projects, quizzes, and certificates. Enterprise Plan is suitable for larger organizations to get unlimited access to skill metrics, user analytics, and integrations; enterprise pricing is custom and available upon request from the Coursera sales team.
Coursera Plus provides unlimited access to 7,000+ world-class courses, hands-on projects, and job-ready certificate programs, for one all-inclusive subscription price.
Millions of students, hobbyists, educators, businesses, and governments around the world benefit from Coursera. It’s ideal for users looking to further their higher education or make progress in their careers. The platform attracts top-notch professors from leading universities like Stanford, Duke, and Yale to teach in-depth courses.
Coursera is a top online learning platform for anyone who prefers self-paced learning over physical classroom-led learning.
Though Coursera offers courses in many categories, such as personal development, its coursework and certificate opportunities are growing exponentially for the IT professional. These are some of the most popular and applicable courses offered for IT professionals now: