With partners like Yale, Stanford and Princeton on board, a Coursesr Certification should definitely have value. But here is the multimillion-dollar question. Are Coursera certificates worth it? Let’s look in a bit more detail.
What is it?
A Coursera certificate is a digital credential that proves you’ve successfully completed a Coursera course, earned credit towards a degree, or taken part in a MOOC. You’ll receive one once you finish taking a course.
Clicking on it will take you directly to your certificate.
If you want to share your certificate with someone else, just copy the URL and paste it into another browser window. Your recipient will automatically be redirected to the certificate.
Once you’ve downloaded your certificate, you can save it as a PDF file. Or you can print it out.
What does it include?
The certificate includes:
The course name, tutor’s signature, partner institution logo, verification URL, and confirmation that Coursera has verified the identity of the person receiving the certificate are included.
You’ll see this extra information whenever you receive a certificate. You don’t have to do anything special to get one. And remember, you can always revoke the certificate later.
Costs
Coursera offers free courses as well as paid certificates. You can choose either one or both depending on what you are looking for. Courses range from 4-12 hours, while professional certificates are usually longer.
There are no hidden fees, but you do pay for each certificate based on length. The price varies according to the type of certificate you want.
Free Courses
These include everything from basic math to computer programming. They are self-paced and take anywhere from 4-12 hours to complete.
Guided projects
You can use these to learn skills such as photography, cooking, graphic design, etc. These are typically shorter than regular courses and take around 2-5 hours to complete.
Specializations
These are designed to help you focus on specific topics within a subject area.
For example, if you’re interested in learning how to code, you might sign up for a specialization called “Web Development”. This would allow you to study web development without having to take an entire course.
How long does it take?
It takes less time to earn a certificate than a course. It generally takes around 3 weeks to complete a certificate. However, there are exceptions. Some certificates require a lot of work outside of class. In those cases, it may take much longer.
How good are they?
Coursera offers thousands of free online classes taught by professors from leading American universities like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, Princeton and Berkeley.
They cover everything from computer science to economics to philosophy to psychology. And since it’s completely free, there’s no better way to learn about something than to take one of those classes. But how good are Coursera’s courses?
We took a look at over 2,000 courses offered by the platform and found that nearly half of them had been taken by students outside of the United States.
We also discovered that many of the courses are taught by professors from prestigious institutions like Oxford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology.
But what really surprised us was just how high the quality of the courses was. Less than 10% of the courses we analyzed earned less than 4 stars out of 5. Only 0.1% of the courses earned 3 stars or lower.
The average rating across all courses was 7.2 stars. For comparison, a typical MOOC earns around 2.5 stars.
Worth it?
The skills you can acquire on a Coursera (see also ‘How To Apply For Financial Aid In Coursera’) course can be invaluable so it’s true to say taking a course is definitely worth it.
As we have seen Coursera also offers certificates for students to complete courses online at no cost. They partner with universities around the world to offer high-quality education for free.
Students can take classes ranging from computer science to music production. Some of the most popular courses include “Introduction to Data Science,” “Data Visualization,” and “Machine Learning.”
Courses range from $10-$100 per credit hour depending on what university the instructor is from and how many hours are required to complete the certificate. There are over 700 different courses to choose from.
Students can earn up to 30 credits toward a degree program at accredited institutions like Stanford and MIT.
A few examples of programs that accept Coursera certificates are UC Berkeley, Boston University, Georgia Tech, New York University, and the University of Washington.
Adding Coursera Certificate to your LinkedIn and resume
LinkedIn allows you to show off your accomplishments and skills. You can add certificates from different courses taken online, including those offered through Coursera. Here are the steps to take to add your certificate to your LinkedIn profile.
- Go to your LinkedIn account homepage.
- Log into your LinkedIn account.
- On the left side menu bar, select My Achievements.
- Search for the course you took.
- Scroll down and find the certificate you want to add.
- Select Add to LinkedIn Profile.
- Follow the instructions to complete the process.
To add your Coursera Certificate to your resume
- Log into your Coursera Account.
- On the left side menu bar, select Certificates.
- The list of certificates you earned will display.
- Select the certificate you want to add to the end of your resume.
- Copy the URL of the certificate and paste it into your Resume.
Degrees, Certificates, & Free Online Courses
- More than 5,000 courses
- Professional Certificates
- Degrees from the Top Universities
In summary
Coursera offers an excellent way to learn new skills without having to pay thousands of dollars in tuition fees. It’s a great option if you want to improve your career prospects or advance your current one.
However, there are no exams or final projects. In fact, Coursera doesn’t even evaluate whether or not students successfully completed the courses. This makes Coursera’s “certificates” seem less legitimate than those earned from universities.
On the plus side, Coursera does provide proof that someone took a class and learned certain skills.
However, it’s useful to remember employers won’t necessarily hire anyone based solely on a certificate, they may view a degree from a respected university as more impressive than a certificate from Coursera.
