Coursera: Grow your career Reviews

by Elreynol

The mobile app doesn’t update my work completed on the web app. There are entire weeks missing on the mobile. There’s no support in troubleshooting this issue, nor is there an accessible customer support channel to resolve. Consequently, I’ve unenrolled in the multi-class course for a Google certificate and consider the $40/month a sunk cost. Great idea, but poor execution. Very disappointed in the overall experience. Edit: I keep finding more and more wrong in the mobile app. Come on guys. I can’t even click through the screen which mistakenly tells me I can “still complete Week 1”. I’ve completed up to week 3 materials according to the web app, and your mobile app won’t even let me click through. if I have to uninstall and reinstall Coursera for basic functionality, it should not be in Coursera store.

by Podpeep

I signed up for free trial, it auto renewed which is no surprise, that’s how all free trials work these days. But when I tried to cancel, it’s impossible! There is no one place to ‘cancel’ a subscription so I tried to cancel by deleting my credit card info, again another month charges on my card. Now I’m 2 months in, go back to website can’t find anything other than an FAQ on cancelling. Says I have to cancel subscriptions but when I go to my subscriptions, nothing to cancel. I think I must be in the clear.... credit card bill arrives and again another months charge on the card!! Would be great to talk to someone but nope, they don’t take phone calls!! Ok maybe I’ll email them.... can’t find an email address for support. One page said email us using the ‘contact us’ button at the bottom of this page. Guess what? No contact us button at the bottom of the page!! Really infuriating!

by MegabassBX

During quarantine many companies and governments world wide shoved this app courses down employees throats, I have to say by far one of the worst experience in online learning is on this platform many of soft skill courses are shallow, lack lots of information and no proper teaching methods being applied, Coursera it self isn’t built on evidence based learning techniques, many courses follow the setup of student assessing other students or take a quiz and score no less than 80% which send you down a rabbit hole, trying the test every 8, 6, or less hours until you get it down, my recommendation would be stay away from this learning platform as you aren’t going to learn much if you are truly interested about learning I recommend starting by googling evidence based learning techniques and from there try to adapt what you learn to those strategies.

by Páty

this app is good when you sign up for one course, & one payment only for that course. Then... they keep charging class after class even after you only signed up for one topic out of the entire outline. Their rules are: you pay one topic after the free trial for your certificate. Not an entire year contract, as I was beginning to get billed. I have to wait until next month to see if I am re-billed, and hope my $$ is returned for this extra month I was charged! The fine print said I would only get billed once, for the course I wanted. If I wanted to take the full outline then I'd have to pay the yearly fee, but my point is I ONLY SIGNED UP FOR ONE CERTIFICATE!! So, there's no need for further billing....although they re-billed me again the following month. :( Very disappointing for my pocket! Scam app, report to remove ASAP! Took my money even though I wasn’t using their course anymore, and I’m very upset. Take this app down! Awful app.

by Ajfernshdhdjjjej

The course was really uninspiring and unimpressive. I attempted to cancel my subscription but was repeatedly charged $50 month after month even after clicking “cancel subscription” on the website. I was charged again today and again went to the website to cancel my subscription to this joke course. Hopefully it works this time or I will be stuck footing the $50 bill again next month. I am now hundreds of dollars in the hole. It is impossible to find a way to contact this app to resolve this matter, they only offer a press and privacy email address but no way to contact a support team. Their “help” column even says “if you think there maybe an error with charges received, please contact us” but offers no way to contact them. I am livid. I would never recommend this app to anyone else.

by Dcbruin101

I had responded to one of this app’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.

by Xnickanthonyx

Was drawn in by a google ad and decided to sign up for the (plus) account. I liked the content and idea of what’s being offered, but found myself frustrated with things that should be obvious.

1. I couldn’t see what the course consisted of and how long it was before enrolling.

2. The video player is just big enough that it doesn’t fit on the page perfectly. So either the top or the bottom of the video player is cut off whenever you’re not in full screen . The only way around this was to size the browser down to 90% when on desktop mode.

3. You cannot unenroll from a course or remove it from your home page. The help center provides you instructions to do this but the instructions are inaccurate and do not help much.

4. There is no way to contact customer support. It says there’s a chat dialogue that is in the bottom right hand corner but no such window is there. I don’t have an Ad/ pop up up blocker enabled.

5. There’s a very faint static noise under everyone’s speaking voice on the videos. Tried several different headphones but the static is always there when someone is talking on the video. Once you hear it you can’t I hear it.

I would probably use this platform if these issues were addressed, but without a fix these nuances are an unnecessary stress factor in the learning process.

by Journey77!

During the pandemic I subscribed to the fundamentals of accounting course where instead of paying full price at once you have the option to pay monthly until you complete the entirety of the course. As I am now home all day I knew I could complete this three month course with-in a month. I was wrong, not because of the work load but because the course locks your projects until a specific date. So, I ended up paying for two months and while unable to work on the course. In addition they promised they’d stop charging once completed but it had charged me anyway for another month. All this caused unnecessary stress and got in the way of my enjoyment of learning. I found no ways to get in touch through phone or email by anyone at this app to talk about my issues.

by Sky_blue02

I much preferred both the website and Coursera 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 Coursera, which I’ve had continual problems with — crashing, things not loading, and Coursera 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 this app (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 this app 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...

by Grace Disfully

10AUG21 Update:
Downloaded Material continues to be deleted from personal profiles (iOS) after updating.
Also:
I access the course home for a given class, and am presented with a trash can icon next to a large number of video lectures, indicating I already have them downloaded. But once I disconnect from the internet or simply go to access the supposed downloaded content via the “Downloaded” menu component, only a few videos are present.
Coursera just continues to lose my confidence and support.
Original complaint:
There was poor notice given for the SAS Programming course of system requirements needed to complete the course. No concerns were expressed by this app or the SAS course introduction/summary page. Left with a system that was underprepared to do many of the tasks asked of the students, minor issues became drastic problems. Therefore I was delayed for long periods in my progress at many points along the way. I attempted to reach out to this app for assistance with my issues, but customer service seems to be all but nonexistent. Update 20Jul21: Disappointed in the loss of downloaded material when updating Coursera . The review remains two stars.

by Iusadgh Cfuygs

I enjoy doing this app courses at my convenience. Lately, I have been taking advantage of my ipad pro to do the courses on the go. Coursera is pretty and the interface is fine but the functionality is lacking. i am doing some courses that use the IBM skills network to conduct labs and for those, I have to switch to one of the mobile browsers on the ipad and navigate to the this app website... I'm not sure why Coursera can't do what the browser does on the same device, but with a lab intensive course, it's not really worth swapping back and forth. When I searched for answers on the website, I came across this sentence: " Try using a computer (not all features are available on the this app app)". My advice - try making your app more useful.

by Babybit Blue

Found new problem. There are a lot of bugs happening at quiz sessions!

I have this app for Students account, which gives me one free course. Aside this 1 free course, I’m auditing another course. The auditing action somehow created a 2nd state of my account, so there are “My this app” with all courses and “ this app for Students” with this app sponsored courses, which is the 1 free course.

On iPad and my phone, I saw a button called “ Switch Program”, I wondered what that is and clicked it. I got switched from “My Course” to “this app for Students”, and locked up with that 1 free course. I cannot switch back. I cannot get access to the course I am auditing. I cannot search for other courses. I cannot upgrade. I can’t even log out from my account! This is really bad experience! How is that suppose to happen?

I understand basically as a free student account you don’t get many paid privilege. But no course browsing, no upgrade? How are you going to convert users? And if I can switch into some environment, I‘ll expect being able to switch out of it. Not to find out that Switch bottom just a bait to getting you stuck!

by Existenceispain

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 Coursera is opened, it would be nice to have them arranged by last accessed, next assignment due, etc. to save time and make Coursera 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. Coursera also sometimes feels a little clunky overall and loads a little slowly.

by Jman98

So I really enjoy Coursera and the courses available on the site. It definitely does it’s best to make learning easier to facilitate in an online only environment. I appreciate the fact that there’s another app similar in availability like skillshare, or udemy, but I’ve not been able to take as many university offered online courses in any other platform other than this app. I’ve shared this site with friends and family and was hoping with the new iOS 15 release that there would be more major updates to Coursera to improve the whole learning experience, like support for SharePlay! I’d love to be able to FaceTime friends or family to take a course we both have mutual interest in taking, together.
It’s nice to get some aspect of a class room feel even if it’s still mostly virtual.
I recommend people take advantage of the courses available on the site and downloading Coursera .
Lets please see a SharePlay support update rolled out soon⁉️🥺🙏🏼😁😊
Thanks to the team of this app

by MarySwansonite1225

I really like Coursera because I can play the video and listen to the audio while I’m driving. It would be nice if there was a just audio of the courses included for ease.

My biggest desire is to be able to search through the course catalog and select courses that I’m interested in taking and be reminded to sign up for them if they start soon. I would take a lot more classes if there was a curated section of courses I hit “like” or “interested” or “save for later.” Sometimes I don’t have the money upfront or am on the fence about a course and it would be nice to have a section to themselves so I don’t have to restart my search.

by Pudding_brain

Overall I throughly enjoy the ease of using Coursera 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 Coursera works great! A definite to download if you‘re using the this app program!

by Ksanz1

I LOVE taking this app classes, but I think Coursera could definitely improve. Often times when I finish a class it doesn’t move to the completed section, it just sits in the current class section indefinitely like it has never been finished. Which is a bit frustrating. Also, sometimes the classes I complete don’t show up at all in the completed section of Coursera , they just disappear. They show up online but not on my iPad or iPhone.

Also, I think a major improvement would be if I could favorite classes so I could save them for later. I often see classes I want to take, but I am already signed up for a couple other classes. There is no way to mark them as ‘“save for later” or “favorite” and so sometimes I forget that certain classes I wanted to take in the future even exist.

by MomD20

Enjoyed lectures and found savoring rewarding. Prayed for each of three grown children & spouses, nine grands & my husband by choosing a tulip representing them, tall purple for males, tall pink for females, yellow for young gymnasts, and petite pink for 2-year old granddaughter.
Had to take deep breath after 53 years of marriage to swallow two-year increased happiness level. Happiness factors are what we have lived with. First daughter, Phi Beta Kappa & top of UNC med school class, had high expectations for four children now 12, 15, 16 & 19 & that is a disaster. Son, two years younger with 3 children and type A, Masters top of UNC nursing wife, has taken different approach focusing on children not being pressured. Seems to work better for 8, 9 & 14 year olds. Third has 2 & 4 year olds
Looking promising.
Happy Easter

by Chuckycheese123

I love Coursera. 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 this app 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 this app is a brilliant app.

The actual software of Coursera is good, but I do think that the team responsible for Coursera layout needs to work on the navigation a little bit. I think if Coursera had a makeover by the team that developed Airbnb, and letgo.. Then Coursera would probably be more popular.

by Lklamee

I love couesera. The classes are easy to sign up for and complete. It easy to navigate to review a video or test you already took. You can tell that the universities that made these courses really put out a quality classes. If you just audit the classes you do not have to pay anything. However in some classes, you have to be a paying student to take the tests. The content of the classes are anywhere from high school level to graduate level. If you signed up for a class that you are not ready for yet, you can switch to a later session or unenroll from the class at any time.

by A Coursera Fan

I like Coursera in some ways, but I am leaving a one star review, hoping they look into this problem and fix it! Syncing should be a trivial feature, not a painful as it is! I often use Coursera offline. I want my advancement in a course material to be transfered to my account when I go online, but that doesn't happen. There is no button to use to sync after connecting to internet. It is suppsed to happen automatically, but in my case it does NOT happen! I could figure out how to enforce it in an earlier version, but that doesn't work now.
There are other problems with Coursera. I can see a chekmark next to quiz that I completed on a computer. So Coursera has received the info from the cloud. It even shows my passing grade in the grade tab area, and still shows the quiz is overdue!!!

by MFAddict

I love course this app and if there was a helpline I would be addressing this privately. But… This new app is totally broken. At least it is on my iPhone X. It crashes all the time. I restart it and it starts at the beginning of the video that I was in the middle of. If I don’t know where I was it’s a pain to try to figure out where to start. And I can’t know where I was because tapping the screen while the video’s playing, which should provide a timeline and a pause button, does absolutely nothing. Rotating the phone horizontally doesn’t work properly - the video should fill the screen and it doesn’t fill the screen. Aside from crashing the apples freezes repeatedly. I could go on. Please return to your simpler, functional app until you’ve completed QC and testing.

by Mynameislazy

Don’t upgrade if you haven’t. Absolutely atrocious, and quite frankly the developers should be ashamed of the poor quality.

The redesign of Coursera made things a lot more difficult. It’s not intuitive where I’m supposed to touch to access my active courses. It no longer gives me the correct option of where I left off on the start of the page and I have to manually check and select which one I was on, it starts me off at Week 1 instead of the active week, and the bar for the videos is no longer active. Also, it shows that I haven’t completed an assignment, even though I checked the website and shows I have. And if it goes to the lock screen on the iPad Pro, it forgets entirely where it was in the application.

by Neberheim

Firstly, this is not a review of this app, which is a great platform that is a credit to the internet; this is a review of Coursera . I first downloaded Coursera in 2015, and I believe it has actually gotten worse as time goes on. From GUI bugs, to graphical glitches, unresponsiveness, and the final straw for writing this review: Even the support ticket request page doesn’t work. I was required to dig through the web-based help center until I could find the ticket request form. Even trying to send the logs to support, I receive “Error. Device logs are not available. Try again later.”
It’s not a great sign when an app is so broken that you can’t even request help properly.
Hopefully your mileage will vary. Otherwise stick to the web-based service for now.

by Monchu5492

This is an awesome app that’s super interactive and very in-depth on all of the its topics but some courses have descriptions that talk about helping you get your career started after finishing the course by sharing you information on a survey you take through an email sent some time after completion(I had to talk to someone to get mine sent) and after you finish that survey that collects what companies you want to share your info with, you have to wait to hear back from “someone” in the future( 4 months and counting) so great information but I can’t even find the job description this certificate is for, on the google website so.. just a tad salty. Hopefully this changes in the future to help people who have a passion for this industry

by JP1460

After taking a course for a few weeks, I tried to submit an assessment and Coursera told me I needed to upgrade. Was rather strange since I had subscribed through iTunes. When I contacted support, which was really hard to find btw, I was told ‘there’s nothing we can do, contact Apple.’ It was clearly a system error on their part but it was me who had to make the effort to remedy the situation. No offer of compensation, a weak apology, and time not well spent trying to submit an assessment. If it were just about the content, the rating would be higher but the lack of customer service left me rethinking where I want to spend my hard earned money on online education. Buyers beware.

by 05031914h

The course content is superb and the professors are excellent except when professors have issues speaking English. I had difficulty understanding some professors and became frustrated and withdrew from the course. Course variety is very good. My university will not accept my completed courses. I would like to see a definitive understanding between online this app and all universities. I’ve had better and more sophisticated classes with this app than I have had with my University of Washington. I want to finish my BA or BFA at University of Washington and trying to interface with them and trying to prove that the course I’m enrolled in with this app is impossible.

by Poodledaddy

I am auditing this class so some of the material is not available to me but the screen casts and the order of the lesson material are exemplary. If you have ever tried to learn something about excel off of You Tube you know that teachers run through something way too fast and you spend a lot of time rewatching and pausing. These screencasts are perfectly paced and easy to follow. The end of lesson post tests are challenging but fair. Great experience and next time I won’t be a cheapskate and actually pay for the class.