How to Take Online Courses with Coursera

Coursera is an online learning platform that hosts courses from some of the most respected universities and companies in the world — Yale, Duke, University of Michigan, Google, IBM, Meta, and many others. You can take a course, earn a professional certificate, or in some cases even complete a full bachelor's or master's degree, all without setting foot on a campus.

The breadth of courses is impressive: data science, computer programming, business strategy, digital marketing, graphic design, psychology, English writing, machine learning, cloud computing, public health, and much more. New courses are added regularly.

Many courses on Coursera can be audited for free. Auditing means you can watch all the video lectures and read the materials at no cost, but you won't receive a certificate of completion and you can't submit graded assignments for feedback. If you want the certificate — which you can display on LinkedIn or share with employers — you pay for the course, usually between $49 and $99.

Coursera Plus is a subscription that gives unlimited access to most courses for $59 per month or $399 per year. If you plan to take several courses in a year, the annual subscription usually works out cheaper than paying for each individually.

Google Career Certificates are among the most popular offerings on Coursera. These are professional programs in fields like IT Support, Data Analytics, Project Management, UX Design, and Cybersecurity. They're designed to be completed in 3 to 6 months with about 10 hours of study per week and are targeted at people looking to change careers. Google reports that many employers actively recruit from these certificate programs.

Each course is broken into weeks of content. A typical week includes 2 to 4 short video lectures, some reading, and a quiz or peer-reviewed assignment. You can go at your own pace — Coursera does not have live class times, so you watch lessons whenever it fits your schedule.

Financial aid is available for paid courses. If the course fee would be a hardship, apply for financial aid on the course page and Coursera often waives the cost entirely.

The Coursera mobile app (iPhone and Android) lets you download content for offline viewing and track your progress on the go. Many people watch lecture videos during commutes or lunch breaks.

When you finish a course, Coursera generates a digital certificate you can download and share. Most certificates include a verification link employers can click to confirm it's real.