Coursera is a renowned global online learning platform (MOOC) offering courses, specialisations, industry certificates, and fully accredited degrees via partnerships with over 300 institutions worldwide. Learners can audit most content for free or pay for graded assignments and certificates. It’s commonly used for:
- Professional upskilling and reskilling (e.g. data science, business, IT)
- University-style degrees and specialisation tracks
- Corporate learning and enterprise training via Coursera for Business
- Government and workforce development programmes
- Continuous personal or hobby learning
Key Features & Benefits
Course Formats & Credentials:
- 7,000+ free-to-audit courses, 875+ specialisations, 140+ professional certificates, and around 20 accredited degree programmes.
- Offers guided projects (short, hands-on tutorials), and fully accredited certificates.
Learner Experience:
- Self-paced video lessons, assignments, peer-graded tasks, quizzes, and community forums.
- Mobile apps with offline access and multilingual subtitles in 20+ languages.
Enterprise Features:
- Coursera for Business: delivers curated course bundles, AI-powered recommendations (via Coursera Coach), analytics dashboards, and custom content tools.
- Trusted credentials from top universities and industry giants like Google and IBM.
Benefits:
- Massive and diverse course offerings at low or no cost
- High learning flexibility (audit/free options, lifetime access, mobile compatibility)
- Recognised credentials and fully accredited degrees
- Scalable, data-driven enterprise learning solutions
Sectors & Clients
Individuals & Career Changers:
- Professionals upskilling in tech or new disciplines (e.g. project management, AI, language).
Enterprise / Corporate Training:
- Novartis, Capgemini (over 216,000 learners), and others in the Fortune 500 use Coursera for global workforce development.
- New York State Department of Labour and governments (e.g. Singapore, Egypt) deploy Coursera for citizen upskilling.
Higher Education & Governments:
- Universities use Coursera to expand access; e.g. GITAM in India saw 400,000 enrollments and 250,000 completions during COVID.
Coursera caters to a broad audience—from self-learners to enterprises and governments.
Company History & Headquarters
- Founded: 2012 by Stanford computer-science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller.
- Headquarters: Mountain View, California, USA; global offices in Denver, India, Brazil, Ireland, Turkey.
- Scale: Around 168 million users globally, with over 1,300 employees as of 2024.
- Publicly listed: NASDAQ (ticker: COUR) since March 2021; also a B-Corporation since 2021 .
Industry Awards & Recognition
- Webby Awards (2014): Winner in Education categories.
- Forbes “30 Under 30” for co-founder Eren Bali (2014).
- Fortune Change the World list (2020).
- Coursera’s own Outstanding Achievement Awards (2022) celebrated partners like Google, Capgemini, and New York Department of Labour.
- Recognised by analyst reviews and rated well on platforms like G2, TrustRadius, and Capterra.
Overall Sentiment from Customer Reviews
Pros:
- Broad, well-organised course catalogue across diverse topics
- High-quality, interactive learning experiences especially in technical subjects
- Accessibility and low entry cost, with audit options and affordable subscriptions
“Coursera courses can be pretty great for learning… The certificate isn’t worth the paper…it’s teaching that counts.”
Cons:
- Peer review grading issues: delays, inconsistent assessment, risk of low peer scores
- Variable course quality — some are outdated or lack depth
- Certificates don’t guarantee employment, and some users feel they’re a “nice supplement” rather than standout credentials
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www.coursera.org