There are more than 2000 courses available on the Coursera as we speak, and that’s why we explored online learning trends and created this list of 10 most popular Coursera courses in 2016 to save you time and spare your nerves.
Are you familiar with the MOOC phenomenon? The way for Universities to put educational material out there with the Massive Open Online Course(s), where thousands can have access to it for free or an affordable price? Where real-time interaction between instructors and students is possible, even if they’re oceans apart? They were and still are a revolution in education, and we all welcome it. Feel free to check out these 10 Best Websites Like Coursera, Udacity and other MOOCs, because they are here to stay.
Do you want to stand out for that promotion you want so bad for a long time? Do you want to earn better grades this school year? Nevertheless, online courses are the right tool for the job, since you can easily manage your study time in a 24/7 world where balancing work and family is often mission impossible. Not to mention your free time and hobbies. Speak of the devil, wouldn’t it be great to turn your hobby into a career, and above all to do it without leaving home? You can definitely make it happen by taking the Coursera degree courses.
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When talking about the value of the Coursera Certificate that one gets after the course is done, the question arises – is it just a knowledge what one get, or the Certificate can be helpful in the pursuit of a degree and a better employment? In November 2012, the American Council on Education (ACE) started the evaluation of credit equivalency for online courses available on Coursera. Two months later, Signature Track was launched. This program personalized online learning on Coursera by linking real identity of a student with their coursework. In this way, for the fee between $30-$300 per course, the opportunity was given to everyone who’s interested in earning a Verified Certificate that is the formal recognition of hard work and course completion. In February 2013, ACE recommended college credit for five courses available on Coursera, with the tendency of recommending additional courses in the future.
This switch from free courses to the paid ones has been raising a lot of dust on forums for quite a while. Disappointment by the commercialization of the platform was apparent. Still, opinions were divided – some welcomed it, and some strongly criticized it. The latter were and still are by far the more numerous, which forced us to question whether it’s justified to put a price tag on the knowledge? But, put yourself in the instructor’s shoes for a second. You are using your resources and your teaching material while teaching courses that you designed. It’s fair to receive a reward for your effort, right? At bottom, we are certainly all familiar with the terms copyright and fair use. On the other hand, from its beginning, the basic idea of Coursera was free access to knowledge. However, everything is subject to change including this learning platform. The new course format was piloted last June, offering a few new courses available only for a certain amount of money. For those less fortunate who can’t afford the fee, Coursera is offering the financial aid. This includes a chance to gain knowledge, complete assignments and earn the Certificate.
So, to make it clear, Coursera still offers full courses that are free. However, the certificate is not included. But, you can pay for it at the end of the course. Needless to say, if you choose to. Also, there are courses that are completely free. Meaning, a certificate is not an offer, even if you are willing to pay for it. In the end, there are those paid ones. But, even they have a free version that includes Audit Only option where you don’t have access to assignments, tasks or Signature Track, but you get readings and video material at no charge. Furthermore, the latest updates from a few days ago introduced the 7-day free trials for most Specializations. With this trial, you can have full access to all graded assignments, videos, and forums within course selected. After 7 days, depending on your experience, you can cancel your subscription, or you can purchase a whole package for $49 per month. For easier access to learning material check out and download Coursera application for Android, iPhone, and iPad on the App Store or get it on the Google Play.
The courses on our list of most popular Coursera courses in 2016 are all parts of Coursera Specializations. This program is launched three years ago and implies multi-course series, where all those who are interested in the specific subject can broaden their knowledge by taking more than one course within specific Specialization. To measure their popularity, we have taken into consideration already existing lists of the most popular Coursera courses for the year 2016 and the year before. There were some overlaps, so we included the number of social media shares for each course on both lists as well as user rating obtained from Class Central. What we got is the following genuine Insider Monkey list.
So, get your pen and paper and click the next button!
10. Mastering Data Analysis in Excel – Duke University
2015 list: 2
2016 list: 10
User rating: 1.8 out of 5
Social media shares: around 1K
Despite a significant drop in the course enrollments when comparing mentioned lists of most popular Coursera courses, as well as poor user ratings and reviews, this course is still on both lists thus proving that there is a big interest in data-analysis tools, concepts, and methods. It’s a part of Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business Specialization along with four other courses, and it will teach you how to use MS Excel for various calculations and predictive analytics in banking. By designing, developing and implementing two predictive models based on data provided within the course, for determination of an applicant’s creditworthiness, you will learn how to be a good data analyst who reduces uncertainty for those who make decisions. This 6-week course is in English, and it’s taught by Jana Schaich Borg and Daniel Egger. And now, let’s see what else we have on our list of most popular Coursera courses in 2016.
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9. The Data Scientist’s Toolbox – Johns Hopkins University
2015 list: 6
2016 list: 8
User rating: 3.3 out of 5
Social media shares: around 850
Here we have another course on our list of most popular Coursera courses in 2016 for those who like playing with data. Don’t mix it up, the data scientist and data analysts are not the same. Besides curiosity, statistics, and the practice of deriving the insights and stories from data, nothing else bonds them. Engaging in this interdisciplinary field means machine learning, software engineering, and programming. So, learn how to extract knowledge from data with tools such as version control, GitHub, R, markdown, etc. Jeff Leek, Roger D. Peng, and Brian Caffo created this course as an intro to the Coursera’s Data Science Specialization.
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8. R Programming – Johns Hopkins University
2015 list: 5
2016 list: 4
User rating: 2.8 out of 5
Social media shares: around 1.3K
The guys from Johns Hopkins University are doing a great job since another their course reached Coursera lists of the most popular courses two years in a row. After the intro course, we already mentioned, next in the Data Science Specialization set is this one that ranks 8th in our list of most popular Coursera courses in 2016. It explains and examines the concept of R programming more closely. We are recommending it to those who have some previous programming experience, since we are talking about reading data into R, accessing R packages, writing R functions and so on. The course is available in English with Chinese subtitles.
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7. Buddhism and Modern Psychology – Princeton University
2015 list: /
2016 list: 9
User rating: 4.4 out of 5
Social media shares: around 8,7K
Some would say that academics and Buddhism or any religion for that matter, can’t go together. However, Robert Wright successfully made correlations between Buddhists psychology and modern evolutionary psychology by asking questions about meditation and trying to find out how it “works”. What is different about this course that ranks 7th in our list of most popular Coursera courses in 2016, is that you can’t earn a certificate if you decide to enroll it. But, what you can is to access to all readings, videos, and graded assignments for free. Enroll now for the upcoming session that starts on April 17.
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6. Speak English Professionally: In Person, Online & On the Phone – Georgia Institute of Technology
2015 list: /
2016 list: 5
User rating: 4.5 out of 5
Social media shares: around 1.7K
Nowadays, the English language is lingua franca – a communication bridge in this diverse world where differences are welcomed and nourished. So, this newcomer on the 2016 list of most popular Coursera courses is offering you a possibility to learn this language of opportunity or to bust your English speaking skills and knowledge that you already have. Motivate yourself to be diligent while taking this course, and with the help of Amalia B. Stephens, you will speak English professionally in no time.
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5. Seeing Through Photographs – The Museum of Modern Art
2015 list: /
2016 list: 7
User rating: 3.5 out of 5
Social media shares: around 11.3K
This course that ranks 5th in our list of most popular Coursera courses in 2016 will show you that photography, as well as a picture, is worth a thousand words. Learn to see and look photographs critically, not just to view them like your aunt’s vacation photo album. Try to understand them as an artistic expression, and communication tool that can tell stories and document history. Explore this thought-provoking and an inspirational course that will engage you in the learning process instantly. Sarah Meister, the curator of photography at the MoMA will teach you how to change your perspective and how to build the foundations for real understanding and interpretation of photography.
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4. Grammar and Punctuation – University of California, Irvine
2015 list: /
2016 list: 6
User rating: 4.6 out of 5
Social media shares: around 2.7K
Did you know that punctuation saves lives? Have you heard a story about the Russian Czarina Maria Fyodorovna and a famous comma? Spot the difference between these two sentences – “Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia” and “Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia.” She deliberately transposed comma in her husband’s warrant in order to save a certain person. Why Czarina has done that and set the man free remains a secret. What’s not a secret is that grammar and punctuation are of greatest importance when it comes to good and effective communication. With the expansion of freelance writing jobs, courses like this are of great use for (non-)native English speakers. It’s taught by instructors Tamy Chapman and Helen Nam – the two ladies that will brush up your grammar and punctuation skills before you can say knife. And now, let’s see the top three entries in our list of most popular Coursera courses in 2016.
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3. Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) – University of Michigan
2015 list: 3
2016 list: 3
User rating: 4.6 out of 5
Social media shares: around 6.8K
Good ratings, thousands of social media shares, and increased popularity through the years are three strong reasons for this Charles Severance’s course to be among top 3 of 10 most popular Coursera courses in 2016. Furthermore, it’s excellent for Python beginners because what you can get from it is basic programming knowledge, just enough to get you started quickly. There are no pre-requisites required, except computer literacy and basic math skills.
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2. Machine Learning – Stanford University
2015 list: 4
2016 list: 2
User rating: 4.8 out of 5
Social media shares: around 31K
Although this course is top rated by users and has the highest social media share rate among others on our list of most popular Coursera courses in 2016, according to the number of enrollments, it’s not the most popular. Nevertheless, it’s high enough on our list of most popular Coursera courses to deserve our recommendation. So, all those interested in the artificial intelligence, data mining and computer programs that change and develop without explicit programming, can thank Andrew Ng for making a good balance between theory and practice while designing this course. The latest session started on April 3 – so hurry up and enroll the course, while there’s still time.
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1. Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects – University of California, San Diego
2015 list: 1
2016 list: 1
User rating: 4.5 out of 5
Social media shares: around 24K
The course number one on the list of 10 most popular Coursera courses in 2016 will change the way of perceiving what you learn and revolutionize your life with innovative learning techniques and models. Winston Churchill once said: “Give us the tools and we will finish the job”. The same is with learning – with the right approach to study material and with an understanding of how our brain works, we can maximize our cognitive skills. Moreover, we can enhance our learning abilities and forgot all about brain enhancing drugs and late-night cramming. Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski will show you the way into a world of easy learning.
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