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For many, online learning can be an attractive alternative to obtaining in-person university degrees. Top e-learning platforms offer free courses from the best schools in the world, famous companies like Google run short-term job training programs, and coding bootcamps are quickly becoming a means to quick and lucrative career switches.
Coursera is one of the most popular online learning platforms out there, offering a wide range of free courses, short certificate programs, and even online master’s degrees.
Coursera is an online learning platform founded by two Stanford University computer science professors. It offers thousands of online courses in partnership with over 200 of the world’s leading universities and companies, including Yale, Princeton, Penn, Stanford, Google, and more.
The site offers free individual courses as well as bachelor’s and master’s degree programs that reduce barriers to higher education. There are also professional certificate programs designed to aid workers in securing new roles or promotions.
To use Coursera, you’ll need to create a free account (or log in using your Facebook, Google, or Apple account). Once you’re signed up, you can take free and paid courses in a few different ways:
Coursera’s education offerings run the gamut from personal development courses like its extremely popular Yale Science of Well-Being to workforce upskilling programs from companies like Google and IBM. Coursera also offers online degrees in industries such as public health and computer science.
Many Coursera courses are free to audit, but students don’t get access to things like graded homework assignments or certificates of completion when they’re auditing a course.
Courses that are part of longer programs or specializations are usually free to try with a seven-day trial.
Courses can range from $39-$49 per month to hundreds of dollars depending on the type and topic. The site also offers Coursera Plus, which is a $399 annual subscription that gives its members unlimited access to over 90% of the e-learning platform’s online courses (over 3,000 classes).
Yes, there are options for online master’s and bachelor’s degrees.
Yes, Coursera offers certificates of completion for its courses if you pay for the course and complete the assignments.
Yes. However, programs like Coursera MasterTracks (partial master’s programs) are not eligible for financial aid.
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