Coursera Review, Is It Worth It In 2022?

Coursera is one of the most popular online learning platforms in the world. It offers a wide variety of courses, from business and marketing to computer science and data science. You can even learn how to code for free on Coursera!

So is Coursera worth it? In this blog post, we will take a look at the pros and cons of Coursera and give you our verdict on whether or not it is worth your time in 2022.

What Is Coursera?

Coursera is an online learning platform that offers courses from top universities and companies. You can learn anything from how to code to how to start your own business on Coursera. There are over 100 million learners on the platform, so you’re bound to find a course that interests you.

Who created Coursera?

Coursera was founded in 2012 by two professors at Stanford University, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. They wanted to make it easier for people to access quality education from top universities.

Pricing

The pricing structure of Coursera can be hard to understand, but hopefully today we can help you navigate its complexity in an easy way.

Coursera divides its content into 6 distinctive groups:

• Guided projects: these are short, practical, hands-on projects that help you learn new skills quickly. Their cost goes from $9.99 and you would normally complete them in 1 to 2 hours.

• Courses: these are long-form content, more theoretical though some may include projects. They usually require from 6 to 12 hours to complete and many are available for free. After that prices vary from course to course.

• Specializations: these are a series of courses that help you master a particular skill. They include hands-on projects and take anywhere from 1 to 3 months to complete. Prices start at $39 per month.

• Professional Certificates: these are programs designed by companies to train employees in specific skill sets. They often lead to job placement and include real-world projects. Prices start at $39 per month and the duration varies from 1 to 12 months.

• MasterTrack® Certificates: these are online versions of Master’s programs. They include a blend of courses and real-world projects and take from 4 to 7 months to complete. Prices start at $2000 per program.

• Degrees: these are full online Bachelor’s and Master’s programs. They take anywhere from 18 months to several years to complete and cost upwards of $9000.

But that’s not it, you can also access Coursera Plus , and for $59/month, you can access their full catalog.

The TL;DR

Coursera pros

• You can learn anything you want: There are over 6000 courses on Coursera, so you’re bound to find something that interests you.

• The courses are taught by experts: All of the courses on Coursera are taught by experts in their field.

• Flexibility: You can learn at your own pace and on your own schedule.

• You can get a certificate: Many of the courses on Coursera offer certification upon completion. This can be useful for your resume or CV.

• It’s affordable: With many courses available for FREE, and others for a small monthly payment that can go from $39 per month.

• Job relevant: Courses are job-relevant and can help you get ahead in your career.

Coursera cons

• Confusing pricing: One of the biggest complaints about Coursera is that their pricing structure is confusing. It can be difficult to understand how much you will need to pay.

• It can be difficult to find a course that interests you.

• Not always beginner-friendly: Coursera offers a lot of courses that are meant for people with prior knowledge. This can make it difficult for beginners to find a course that is right for them.

What Type Of Content Is Available On Coursera?

Coursera offers content in eleven different content areas:

• Data Science
• Business
• Computer Science
• Health
• Social Sciences
• Personal Development
• Arts and Humanities
• Physical Science and Engineering
• Language Learning
• Information Technology
• Math and Logic

And each one of those areas is divided into subcategories. For example, in the Business section, you’ll find courses on everything from marketing to entrepreneurship. In the Computer Science section, you’ll find courses on everything from programming to artificial intelligence.

So no matter what you’re interested in learning, Coursera has a course for you. And with new courses being added all the time, you’re sure to find something that interests you.

Most Popular Coursera Courses

Guided projects

Getting Started with Power BI Desktop by Coursera - In this 2-hour long project-based course, you will learn the basics of using Power BI Desktop software. We will do this by analyzing data on credit card defaults with Power BI Desktop. Power BI Desktop is a free Business Intelligence application from Microsoft that lets you load, transform, and visualize data. You can create interactive reports and dashboards quite easily, and quickly. We will learn some of the basics of Power BI by importing, transforming, and visualizing the data.

Docker for absolute beginners by Coursera - In this 2 hours guided project through hands-on labs you will learn the following:

1. Understanding docker architecture
2. Docker commands to manage images and containers
3. Networks in docker
4. Volumes in docker
5. Deploying a web application as a docker container

Courses

HTML, CSS, and Javascript for Web Developers by Johns Hopkins University - In this course, we will learn the basic tools that every web page coder needs to know. We will start from the ground up by learning how to implement modern web pages with HTML and CSS. We will then advance to learning how to code our pages such that its components rearrange and resize themselves automatically based on the size of the user’s screen. You’ll be able to code up a web page that will be just as useful on a mobile phone as on a desktop computer. No “pinch and zoom” required! Last but certainly not least, we will get a thorough introduction to the most ubiquitous, popular, and incredibly powerful language of the web: Javascript. Using Javascript, you will be able to build a fully functional web application that utilizes Ajax to expose server-side functionality and data to the end user.

Python Crash Course by Google - This course is designed to teach you the foundations in order to write simple programs in Python using the most common structures. No previous exposure to programming is needed. By the end of this course, you’ll understand the benefits of programming in IT roles; be able to write simple programs using Python; figure out how the building blocks of programming fit together; and combine all of this knowledge to solve a complex programming problem.

AI For Everyone by DeepLearning.AI - AI is not only for engineers. If you want your organization to become better at using AI, this is the course to tell everyone–especially your non-technical colleagues–to take.

Specializations

Python for Everybody Specialization by the University of Michigan - Learn to Program and Analyze Data with Python. Develop programs to gather, clean, analyze, and visualize data.

JavaScript for Beginners Specialization by UC Davis - Build Your Skills in JavaScript and jQuery. Start a journey to using JavaScript to become a programmer.

The Four Steps To Find The Perfect Coursera Course For You

Finding the right content when there’s so much to offer can be overwhelming, but thankfully, Coursera offers us many tools we can use to find the one that is right for us.

Follow these four steps to go from idea to enrollment:

1. Use the search function

If you already know what you are looking for, the best way to find it is to use the search bar in the top navigation.

Similar to Google, it will start giving results immediately, however, you can also press Enter, to visit the results page and explore more options.

2. Narrow down your results

Depending on your search query, you can find pages and pages of content, and I’d normally use the filter section on the left side of the page to narrow down my results.

I’d typically first apply the level, e.g. “Beginner”, then for the content type, e.g. “course”, and sometimes even the language, e.g. “English”. After that, I should have a good reference point, though there are more filtering options to explore.

3. A quick scan through the results

With the filters already applied, we can start looking at the multiple suggestions by Coursera. Here I take a look mainly at three items on each card, first the number of reviews, then the company or trainer behind it, and finally the estimated duration (if I didn’t filter that before).

4. Investigate deeper into the most promising options

From the quick scan, I’d open two or three options, and I normally open them in a new tab. Now in the course page, I can read more details about the training, the syllabus, full reviews, target audience, etc.

At this point, after reading the course page for all my pre-selections, I pick one and I’m good to go.

Coursera Alternatives

My Experience Using Coursera

I decided to take Coursera up on their free trial offer to see if it would be worth paying for a subscription. I found a course that was interesting and started learning.

I wasn’t super impressed by the first course I enrolled in, however, after exploring a bit more my impression of the platform started to change.

The platform is really good, I love how many courses take a practical approach, so you are not just watching someone explaining things, but you get to do and build as well.

I have to say that I’ll be coming back to the platform when I’m looking to learn something new.

Is Coursera Legit?

Courses on Coursera are designed and taught by some of the world’s top instructors from universities like Stanford, Princeton, and Yale. So, yes Coursera is definitely legit and safe to use. You won’t be scammed!

Final Thoughts, Is Coursera Worth It?

I would say yes, Coursera is definitely worth it. The platform has a lot of high-quality courses that can help you learn new skills or improve existing ones. And with the subscription, you have access to all of them without having to pay for each course separately.

So if you’re looking for a place to learn something new, or improve your skills, Coursera is a great option. Give it a try! You might be surprised by how much you can learn.

Have you tried Coursera? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!

Juan Cruz Martinez

¡Hola!

Soy Juan Cruz Martinez, el fundador de LiveCodeStream.dev. Me encanta programar y creo en el poder de la programación no solo para construir un mundo mejor, sino para hacer que TU vida sea mejor.

Fundé LiveCodeStream.dev porque quería ayudarte a aprender a programar, construir una mejor carrera y, en última instancia, crear una vida mejor. Eso me sucedió hace más de una década cuando comencé a programar, y le sucede a decenas de miles de personas a diario. Quiero que TÚ te unas a esa revolución.

No importa cómo lo llames, escribir código, programación, desarrollo de software o cualquier otra cosa, las habilidades involucradas están en una demanda cada vez mayor. Y ya sea que quieras incursionar en el desarrollo de sitios web, diseño de juegos, desarrollo de blockchain o cualquier otra cosa, quiero ayudarte.