Coursera: Grow your career

I love this app. I took one of the most interesting classes that I’ve ever taken (and that’s coming from a 5th year Ph.D. student, studying mechanical engineering) from the comfort of my own couch every night for 30 minutes with the tv in the background. The class was really interesting, and while coursera is not responsible for the great quality of the lecture videos, they are responsible for providing a platform for me to access the lecture videos in the first place. And this is why I think that coursera is a brilliant app. The actual software of the app is good, but I do think that the team responsible for the app layout needs to work on the navigation a little bit. I think if this app had a makeover by the team that developed Airbnb, and letgo.. Then this app would probably be more popular.

Edit: Removed a star because after the latest update the forums don't load. Suggestions for improvements: if optional assignments in courses could be differentiated so that the "pick up where you left off" section could skip over those if you've already started/completed assignments after those, it would save a lot of time and actually make that a useful feature. Also, instead of randomly arranging the list of enrolled courses every time the app is opened, it would be nice to have them arranged by last accessed, next assignment due, etc. to save time and make the app a little more user-friendly. Classes also tend to “jump around” while you’re on the page so that, in the time it takes to tap on a course, another one swaps places with it and you’re taken to the wrong page—very frustrating when it happens so often. The app also sometimes feels a little clunky overall and loads a little slowly.

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I much preferred both the website and the app before all the visual changes — they were both easier to navigate and more reliable. Since the updates, I’ve used both much less. That said, the desktop version is better than this app, which I’ve had continual problems with — crashing, things not loading, and the app incorrectly keeping track of where I am in a course when auditing it. I’ve been using other sites much more because of this (I think that speaks volumes). I have had problems with edX and Udemy but not nearly as bad as with Coursera (both online and off). If you encounter issues like I did, try the website using a desktop computer. I found that much better in many regards. The issue with Coursera not properly tracking progress when you audit a course can be worked around by keeping a browser tab open to the course page with the week you’re working on visible. It’s a shame. I used to love this site and its app. It just has really gone downhill...

Overall I throughly enjoy the ease of using this app for my study time. Most things work fluidly, and being able to download lessons on wifi for later use is a huge plus. There are a few things that could be improved. As of now you can‘t take some tests on mobile, which is understandable. Sometimes the transcripts move too far up, not too terribly but I do prefer to read along while listening. Occasionally they would like you to post on forum to better bring the learners together, this in and of itself is ok, but when it initially pops up you can‘t post from that window, instead you have to close it and go to actual forum portion of app and find your thread. So far outside of these, everything in the app works great! A definite to download if you‘re using the Coursera program!

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I had responded to one of Coursera’s email promotions for a discounted course fee on select courses for Pi Day; the options weren’t great, just ok, each was a mishmash of data science topics (but ironically, no math courses). When I selected one and went to pay, the iOS app demanded the full monthly fee, even though I was purchasing it on the day the promo was available. Their customer support team told me that they had only reserved a handful of slots at the discounted rate but continued to advertise the discount and made no mention of this limitation on their course pages. So, basically a case of false advertising to achieve a bait and switch. Very disappointing; I would have liked to try out of these courses and the discount would have helped since the programs seemed to be missing some key elements, but maybe it would be okay. I’m looking for a set of courses that could be used for professional development, so I I’ll try EdX instead after this experience.