Coursera Review 2024 +++ Is Coursera Really Worth It? (2024)

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If you are interested in learning online instead of going through conventional methods, Coursera is a great option. Not only are they available globally, but they are very accessible for most people.

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Looking for a way to learn online and get degrees?

Coursera is a great option in 2024 to look into. In this Coursera review, you will find all of the information that you need to know to get you started.

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Best Coursera Alternative

The best alternative to Coursera is Skillshare.

Honestly, I like Skillshare more.

The biggest advantage of Skillshare is that you pay a monthly fee, and you can access the classes for free. You don’t have to pay for each class individually.

They even have a 7-Day trial so there is really no reason not to give them a try.

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What is Coursera?

Coursera is an online learning platform that allows you to take online education courses. These courses come with the opportunity to earn degrees from leading universities and companies.

If you want to learn about data science, social sciences, computer science, marketing, ux design or other fields, then Coursera is for you.

The vision of Coursera is to create a global platform that can be accessed by anyone, anywhere.

Providing a method of learning to anyone who wants it. The number of users on Coursera is still growing (Coursera user statistics).

With the digital world constantly growing, platforms like Coursera make learning easier than ever. Removing the need to go out and learn and providing the option of doing so from home with just as many perks.

Coursera even offers a Master’s degree program in some fields.

How Do You Use Coursera?

To begin using Coursera, you will need to first create a free account within their website. This will require you to fill out a short form with some basic information.

Coursera will send you an email as a verification of your account; it will usually include a link.

This will allow you to get into the platform and look at the available courses and prices.

Once within the platform, you can search for the online courses that you want to take and go from there.

Depending on what courses you choose, you may need to add additional information, such as payment information.

Alternative apps include Headway and Blinkist.

Types of Courses on Coursera

There are 6 different types of courses that you can take depending on what your goals are. There are guided projects, courses, specializations, professional certificates, master track certificates, and degrees.

Some of these options are free, while others will cost some money. Some can take as little time as a few hours to complete, while others could take several months to several years to finish completely.

What you choose will depend on why you are taking the courses and what your goals are. Some people simply want to bulk up their qualifications, while others are looking to earn full-level degrees for work.

Is Coursera Free?

Coursera has many free online courses that you can choose from. Even though they are free, many are still led by top colleges and companies. And you can still use them to earn a degree.

The one downside to this is that there is a fee applied at the end of the course if you wish to collect your degree.

This makes these courses not entirely free, as they might seem at first.

But despite the small fee applied at the end of the course, Coursera is still one of the few platforms that offer free courses.

Providing a budget-friendly option that is still high-quality and led by the top colleges.

This is one detail that sets Coursera apart from the rest of the learning platforms online.

Coursera Free Trial

Coursera offers a 7 day free trial to all users except users from India. When you start your first subscription, the first paid course will be free. After the trial period expires, the account will turn into a paid subscription if you don’t cancel it.

Free Trial for India

Unfortunately Coursera decided not to offer the same free trial conditions to users from India. However these users get a 14 day money-back guarantee instead, with is part of their refund policy.

How Much Does Coursera Cost?

Though Coursera does offer plenty of free options, when it comes to their courses, there are still many paid ones as well. Only a small selection of Coursera’s courses are actually free to take.

Coursera offers 6 different types of courses that you can take, the most basic option being free to use.

The other 5 options all require some kind of payment.

Guided projects that only take a few hours to complete start at $9.99, while degree-based courses start at $9,000. This is quite a significant price difference, but the latter course takes 2 to 4 years.

Coursera is Really Affordable

As expensive as some of Coursera’s courses may seem, they are still quite reasonable if you think about it. Since spending 4 years at college to earn your degree could cost as much as $25,362.

With Coursera, you are able to skip all of the unnecessary expenses and steps to get right to where you want to be.

You can take the one course that you need and only have to pay for that course.

This provides a much cheaper option in the long run as well as gives you the ability to work from the comfort of your home.

Many students also do not need to take the most expensive courses as there are many other cheaper options.

All of Coursera’s professional certificates provide some value, so you can decide what will be the most beneficial for your career.

Many use Coursera to simply bulk up their resume and prove that they have education in a specific field.

Coursera Payment Methods

Coursera accepts credit cards, debit cards(one time payments only) and Paypal (except India).

Is Credit Card Required for Coursera?

Yes. With debit cards you can only do one time payments and you can’t pay for subscriptions.

Why is Coursera Not Accepting my Card?

Coursera may not accept your card. Try a different credit card instead.

Do Coursera Certificates Have Value?

Unlike many online learning platforms that offer courses, Coursera can actually help you with your career. This is because Coursera offers certificates and degrees that actually have value.

Many learning platforms offer a professional certificate, but many do not have value in the real world. They are purely a pat on the back for your hard work and will not actually help you to get a job or build a career.

Coursera certificates are different and are respected by employers and universities. This is because Coursera offers the highest quality when it comes to courses.

Coursera courses are led by the top universities and companies that you could think of. This makes Coursera certificates and degrees legitimate and valuable.

You can use the online degrees that you earn on Coursera to help you land your dream job or qualify for a job with a higher position.

They are just as valuable as a college-earned degree when it comes to finding work and applying for jobs.

You can earn two different kinds of certificates through Coursera. This includes a course certificate and a specialized professional certificate. Both are recognized by employers and will help you in different ways.

Can You Put Coursera on Your Resume?

You can certainly put Coursera certificates on your resume when you are applying for jobs. This can be incredibly useful if you need to prove that you are educated or specialize in that field of work.

Coursera is very unique in this aspect as many online learning platforms lead you to believe that their certificates are of value. But in reality, these are often not recognized in the working world.

With Coursera certificates, they are widely recognized and are just as valuable as a college certificate or degree. You can add them to your resume just like you would any college qualifications.

This is one of the many reasons why people choose to go with Coursera as it helps them to further their career or land their dream job. With Coursera, you are actually getting qualifications in the field of your choosing, making you much more likely to get a job in that field.

How Is Coursera Work Graded?

Because Coursera is such a well-known website and has grown substantially, it would be almost impossible to grade each assignment. Coursera used to use a professor grading system but had too much work to grade.

To remedy this problem, Coursera switched to a peer grading system. This system requires all Coursera students to grade 4 other assignments made by other students.

This is done within courses where the students are taking the same course and doing the same assignments.

In theory, this sounds like a perfectly adequate system to put into place for such a popular website. But the big area where this fails is that all peer grading must be done anonymously.

Anonymous Grading

Anonymous grading was put into place to protect the identity of all of the students, which again seems reasonable. The problem with this is that students can grade however they like with complete privacy.

This can often result in rude, petty, and downright abusive grades from fellow students.

The anonymity creates a kind of cover-up for students to behave badly and inappropriately.

There is no way for Coursera to stop this without making the graders’ identity known, which is also not a good option. This creates a corner where Coursera has its hands tied, and the students can suffer for it.

How Long Do Coursera Courses Take?

A Coursera course could take as little as a few hours to complete or as long as 2 to 4 years. It all depends on the type of course that you sign up for.

Out of the 6 courses that Coursera offers, each course requires a different amount of time and provides a different valued certificate. Generally, the course that takes the longest time will provide the most valuable certificate.

What course you take will depend on your educational goals. Those looking to earn a full degree will have to dedicate years of their time. While, smaller courses could take as little as a few hours or a few months.

All Coursera courses will add value to your resume even if they require just a few hours. But the larger amount of time dedicated will result in a more recognized certificate. Just like a longer work experience timeline is more impressive to employers.

How much time you are willing to dedicate to a Coursera course will depend on why you are taking the course. If you simply want to add value to your resume or show that you have a certain level of education in a specific field.

Is Coursera Legit?

There are many scammy platforms online that do not offer what they say that they are offering. Coursera is not one of those sites and is, in fact, a very prestigious learning platform.

They have earned a well-polished reputation and provide exactly what they claim to. Giving anyone access to a whole website of learning courses that you can take.

Coursera will not steal your money or your information. They are a very trustworthy site that has safely guarded the information of thousands and thousands of users.

If there is any educational platform that you can trust, it would be Coursera. They have a long history of providing what they promise and are very established. So they won’t be scamming you any time soon.

If you are looking for alternatives, you can check out our Udemy review and Skillshare review.

Is Coursera Safe to Use?

Coursera in and of itself is very safe to use. It is a very well-known and established earning platform that has been around for a long time.

Though a certain amount of information is needed to use Coursera, you can rest easy knowing that your information will be safe. You will also have to disclose payment information, but they also closely guard that information as well.

Coursera has a long-held reputation for keeping its users safe and their information private. It is a completely legitimate site and will not try to scam you.

The partners of Coursera include: Yale, Stanford, Duke University, University of Michigan, Google, IBM and many more.

Coursera Plus Review

Coursera Plus is Coursera’s subscription plan that gives you unlimited access to all Coursera courses.

This means that you will also get access to all online lectures and discussions, graded assignments, certificates and the ability to download any course videos or materials.

Coursera Plus also gives you access to all of Coursera’s special features like the option to repeat quizzes and exams, download class notes, the ability to track your learning milestones, see the class calendar and view class rankings, hours spent on the platform, etc. The course platform is really user friendly and the video lectures are fun.

Coursera Complaints

The only real complaint about the safety of Coursera’s platform comes from students. As some have insinuated that other students are able to steal work on the site.

Dozens of reports have been reported around plagiarism on the site amongst the courses. This often happens in courses that require the students to complete assignments and share their work.

Many Coursera students have joined peer reviews, only to realize that they are grading their own work. This is a huge issue as plagiarism is a big deal in the academic world and should never be allowed.

Many reports have been had of students also plagiarizing other websites, such as copy and pasting information. Which is another very serious academic offense.

Coursera has plagiarism detection software in place to try to correct this issue, but there is no knowing just how accurate it is.

Is Coursera Worth It?

Many people looking into Coursera can be quite wary of the idea of taking certified courses online. This is because they do not want to waste their time or money on something that’s not worthwhile.

The thing about Coursera is that it really can be worthwhile if done correctly. Like any kind of education, you need to make sure that you are fully committed to the courses that you choose to take.

If you want to make the most out of your money and time, it is important to carefully decide what courses you wish to invest in.

Coursera Certificates and Online Degrees

Because Coursera certificates are provided by top-level universities and companies, they hold value. They are not just a certificate of completion like many other platforms offer.

This means that the courses that you take through Coursera will be valuable to your future and your career. Because employers will respect certifications from Coursera.

Not only will you be broadening your knowledge and learning more about your desired field. At the end of each course, you can receive a certificate to show how much work you have done and how much you have learned.

These are useful in the real world and can be used to show that you understand different fields of work. They will give you qualifications much like college degrees would. Making it more likely that you will be hired for specific jobs.

Customer Service

The Coursera customer service is top notch and you can contact them by email or chat (which I always prefer).

You can easily find their contact details on their website.

Coursera Review – Bottom Line

Overall, if you are looking to take courses online, Coursera is a great place to go to. It has many courses to choose from, all being led by professionals in those fields.

There are cheaper educational platforms out there that you could also use but many just can’t compare to Coursera. Not in terms of how usable the certificates are.

Other learning platforms may offer just as many courses at a cheaper price, but most don’t actually have real-world value. They are simply a way for you to learn more on a particular topic or subject.

Coursera’s biggest value is that it can provide educational experience that counts in the real world. Not only do you get to have a certificate showing that you finished the course, but it is also a valuable certificate.

Coursera certificates will be acknowledged by colleges, universities, and workplaces. They are just as valuable as on-the-job experience or college degrees.

If you get a Coursera certificate, you can put it on your resume to show off your skills. Because Coursera is so well known and respected, these certifications are also respected and acknowledged.

This is possibly the biggest bonus to use Coursera to further your education from home. As you can use it to later bulk up your resume to get into universities or to land a job.

This is why Coursera is one of the best educational platforms on the internet for valuable learning. As it translates to being useful in the real working world.