I prefer edX, it's more open in general.
Coursera is phasing out free certificates
81–90 of 135 posts
Re: Coursera is phasing out free certificates
#82Do we really need coursera? Most universities are uploading their lectures into youtube anyway.
Well a lot of coursera courses come with :
- a community where you can discuss courses like in a real class
- exercises,source,... that are often reviewed by real teachers or peer-review which absolutely invaluable at least for me . I learned a whole lot because of this.
So it's way more than a youtube channel with a bunch of videos. Course are shot specifically for coursera.
Re: Coursera is phasing out free certificates
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
But that, again, has nothing to do with the final certificate.
No, the certificate certifies that you indeed invested time to upgrade your education on your own to the employer.
Did an employer ever ask you to show them your university degree after you mentioned that you attended an university on your resume? I'm asking because it never happened to me and I don't think it's a common practice. Just mentioning that you have done some online courses on your resume and being able to talk about them seems enough to me. If the course is relevant to the job you are applying to, I expect the interviewer to be able to verify that you indeed took the course in a quick conversation.
Re: Coursera is phasing out free certificates
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Scenario 6 you're interviewing for a job and personnel manager has hardly any knowledge about the topic (very usual). Personnel manager: "You claim that you have knowledge in [topic]. What do you have to prove this kind of knowledge? Me: "I attended course in [provider] and completed it successfully with distinction. Here's the certificate..." Scenario 7 - again job interview Personnel manager: "You claim that you ve…
Alternate answer: "The increasingly difficult and diverse projects I have completed drew on all of the new knowledge I was gaining, and speak for themselves."
The personnel manager (again: they usually have few knowledge about the topic) is usually not able to assess whether these projects were really difficult or just smoke and mirrors.
On the other hand, checking the certificates is easy...
Re: Coursera is phasing out free certificates
#85While what the OP mentioned is True , what i really think is that the real value of MOOCs is not in the certificate (it not that much important especially from MOOC providers) but the opportunity that it creates for people to gain knowledge , and personally speaking , MOOCs have changed my life , i live in 3rd world country where the quality of education is worse than you can imagine, but thanks to Coursera, Edx and…
This is a really great observation. For many people they have been raised that it doesn't count unless you get the certificate. That has elements of truth to it in the job market, you need an independent third party to say that you have learned the material. However, for just as many people it has really about accelerating their ability to be effective by rapidly absorbing the knowledge and learning of people that ha…
Coursera has increasingly pushed non-participation in a course's verified certificate process as a signifier of lower status as a student. Originally, certificates were a mark of academic performance and the business model was more akin to a dual license open-source project where the non-paying community was just the non-paying community; the verified certificate was solely a value added proposition based on the value of verification. The change has been that certificates have shifted toward a mark of consumer status.
There has been a trend toward attaching stigma to taking the courses for free. Removing the certificates from free tracks is an obvious part of it.
Re: Coursera is phasing out free certificates
#86Honestly, if someone's resume tells me they took (say) the Coursera Natural Language Processing course, never in a million years would it occur to me to ask to see the certificate, any more than I'd ask to see their transcript to verify that they took specific classes in college. And vice versa, I have lots of Coursera courses on my resume, no one has ever asked to see my certificates either.
Putting Coursera on a resume had never occurred to me. Do you use it to bolster other experience and education? Or would you be comfortable applying for a position where your only relevant experience was from Coursera?
I have no non-Coursera CS training, so I use it as the "CS training" part of my resume. (I also have relevant work experience and a math degree.)
I would be comfortable hiring someone entry-level most of whose relevant experience was from Coursera, assuming they convinced me they would be a good hire.
If you are a quick learner, IMO you should feel comfortable applying for any job you think you can get hired for, even if it's a stretch based on your experience.
Re: Coursera is phasing out free certificates
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, good, so lets play this out a bit. You're claiming these courses, and you also claim you did well and learned something. So... Scenario 1 you're interviewing for a job: Interviewer has knowledge and experience in the area of question. They ask you "tell me about XYZ - you have taken courses on the subject? ". Your answer is : * "blah blah blah blah blah ..lots of juicy details about the cool stuff you learned."…
Scenario 6 you're interviewing for a job and personnel manager has hardly any knowledge about the topic (very usual). Personnel manager: "You claim that you have knowledge in [topic]. What do you have to prove this kind of knowledge? Me: "I attended course in [provider] and completed it successfully with distinction. Here's the certificate..." Scenario 7 - again job interview Personnel manager: "You claim that you ve…
fair enough.
I haven't had many of those myself - but that may be a selection bias due to not having accumulated credentials. Have to admit, no body has ever asked me to prove I went to university but they have consistently asked for the types of answers I describe in scenario #1 above.
In the case of the hiring I do, our "personal managers" are code surfacing resumes based on their content and then a lightweight screening before they come to me. That screening might include a check to verify experience or references. Then I never ask for credential -- only discussion and proof of work (again - maybe a bias of me and those like me).
Re: Coursera is phasing out free certificates
#88People in other comments are saying the certificates are pointless, or useless, or never needed. In contrast to their claims, recently when applying for a job I was asked for proof that I really do have a PhD. I have no idea where the certificate is, and pointed out in an email that certificates can, these days, easily be faked. To provide a certificate merely gives them grounds later, if they find I don't have a PhD…
It's not the case that all credentials are worthless -- but it is the case that a Coursersa "statement of accomplishment" is. If you take a Coursera course, it should be for the interest of learning something, not for the credentials, because nobody will ever care about those credentials. (I suspect the point of what they're doing here is to make it so people will care about them -- if you can't get the credentials f…
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Re: Coursera is phasing out free certificates
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, the certificate certifies that you indeed invested time to upgrade your education on your own to the employer.
Did an employer ever ask you to show them your university degree after you mentioned that you attended an university on your resume? I'm asking because it never happened to me and I don't think it's a common practice. Just mentioning that you have done some online courses on your resume and being able to talk about them seems enough to me. If the course is relevant to the job you are applying to, I expect the intervi…
> Did an employer ever ask you to show them your university degree after you mentioned that you attended an university on your resume?Did an employer ever ask you to show them your university degree after you mentioned that you attended an university on your resume?
I live in Germany, so I can just answer this question for Germany and Austria (in the latter country the situation is even a little bit more expressed). But handing in a copy (often even a witnessed copy) of your university degree is nearly always required when making an application even to get an interview.
Re: Coursera is phasing out free certificates
#90I don't see the problem with charging for providing a valuable service. If Coursera is valuable then of course the people who contribute their time to making it so deserve to profit from their efforts. If it isn't valuable, then why does it matter what they charge?
The change is not in charging for value, it's in removing the value from the alternative. It's got some equivalence to a company with dual licensing open source software crippling the community edition in order to sell more of the commercial edition.