Coursera Certification - Is it worth it?

You want to add value to your company by learning about the newest development in your industry. You are thinking of looking at your profession from a different, fresher angle. You are interested in a career change. One commonly taken path for people from those 3 sentences is Online Courses - relatively quick, busy-schedule friendly, to-the-point educational materials. Being one of those 3 "you"s, let me share my personal experience with the Coursera IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate Course, and try to answer the question "Is a Coursera Online Course worth the time/money/effort?"

The Good

Let's start with the advantages of Online Courses and Coursera in particular.

Flexibility. A self-paced course that can be adjusted to anybody's schedule. I was able to obtain the 9-course certificate in a hectic 2 months of late nights and short weekends. It can be done even quicker but it really depends on the time you can invest. My recommendation would be a bit tighter schedule to keep the latest learned still fresh.

Abundance. Probably the biggest advantage of online courses, and Coursera, is the fact that there is an enormous amount of options. You can take classes from Microeconomics to Gastronomy, from narrowly specialized like Python for Data Science to generalizing like Introduction to Statistics. You will not only find what you are looking for but you might be overwelmed. I would recommend investing some time in comparative course research and analysis.

Costs. A relatively affordable option. The majority of websites are subscription-based. You can pay for a specific time period (e.g. datacamp.com). There are options to pay a fixed course fee and get lifelong access to the course materials but this is not the case for tutorless Online Courses. In Coursera's case, you pay a monthly fee every month until you finish the course. The quicker you finish, the less you owe. It is a great option for people with more free time.

The Bad

Those advantages come with a few concessions discussed below.

Quality. You will learn new, up-to-date information, information that comes under scrutiny by the hundreds of newly signed up learners and receives constant feedback. My criticism of the quality is related to the format. There is no person you can directly communicate your questions with. The is no charismatic teacher to engage your interest or get your misconceptions addressed right away in an encouraging manner. You can submit a question in a forum-like environment where you will get a pointing answer after some time. Perhaps this is the future of learning where you tackle problems on your own, where you are the sole person responsible for your education. I just imagine that a paid service could offer more in terms of mentorship and feedback. I can google it myself for free.

Reliability. The Coursera business model sounds very well thought out. They seem to put most of their efforts into course material production and maintenance, marketing, perhaps partner networking. Considering that it seems their main revenue generator is subscription fees paid by learners, the emphasis is very much away from the learner. Scalability-wise, this strategy seems to be the better solution. The more learners you have, the harder it will get to provide each and every one with quality attention. The more learners -> the more teachers, the more efforts, the more emphasis on creating a network of multi-field teacher teams. This sounds like a problem you do not want to have on your hands if you plan to scale up. To deal with this scaling problem, Coursera found an elegant solution. The solution: 1) video-based lectures that can be viewed simultaneously and across time by n amount of learners; 2) peer-reviewed assignments that do not require specialized professionals to be graded. In this solution, you base the intrinsic value of the Coursera certificate on the collective moral compass of your learners/clients. What are the incentives of a learner to put his time and effort into providing a just, righteous peer review?

Conclusion

Coursera Certification - Is it worth it?

Yes, I think it is worth it. I learned about and practiced the skills required to be a Data Analyst: Data Collection, Wrangling, Analysis, Visualization, and Presentation. This was my initial goal and I achieved it via this Course.

Appendix: Additional questions for the curious

Is a Coursera Certification equivalent to 2/3 years of higher education?

- No, a few months of practice-based, specialization-focused learning will not give you the mastery you will achieve in 2/3 years, but it has its fair advantages.

Is a Coursera Certification enough to say you have learned a skill?

No, I think it is a well-structured start though.