Explore 4,000+ free online courses for personal and professional growth

Coursera is an online learning platform that offers courses and learning opportunities at companies and universities. Coursera for Duke makes more than 4,000 of these courses from 120 universities, including Duke, available to all Duke staff, faculty, and students at no cost. Students can acquire a new skill, explore a new subject, or advance their professional goals at their own pace.

A pandemic expansion

Course offerings and partner universities have increased in recent years, according to Quentin Ruiz-Esparza, Director of Digital Product Strategy and Design who oversees Coursera programming at Duke.

Before the pandemic, Coursera at Duke was limited to courses developed by Duke instructors, of which there were approximately 65. But as the world moved more online after 2020, Ruiz-Esparza said Duke became part of the Coursera Partners Consortium , a partnership between universities and educational organizations that have chosen to make their course catalogs available free of charge to students at other participating institutions.

Among the expanded offerings, Duke instructors now offer about 120 courses, Ruiz-Esparza said. And many departments and units use the tool for training and specialization instruction.

“Coursera is increasingly becoming part of Duke’s professional schools and academic units,” said Ruiz-Esparza. “They are part of their professional education strategy which is really a way to provide affordable and flexible learning at scale that complements their strategy around degrees and certificates.”

Coursera for career development

Computer science and data science courses are among some of the most popular general topics. A sampling of the most popular courses among Duke students include: Stress First Aid for Healthcare Professionals, Introduction to Probability and Data with R, Fundamentals of Cloud Computing, Programming for Everyone, and Medical Neuroscience.

But there are also fun courses. Ruiz-Esparza said one of the most popular courses offered by Duke is Dog Emotion and Cognition, taught by Brian Hare of the Duke Canine Cognition Center.

Dean Hawkins has been taking Coursera classes since he started working at Duke three years ago because he was interested in learning more about Python, a computer programming language.

“I don’t have any background in computer science,” Hawkins said. “I just think computers are cool and I wanted to learn some programming – and Python is a good way to start. So I did it for fun and realized I really enjoyed it and thought I was good at learning.”

He said he could do a long course every three or four months. Their dedication resulted in a total of 139 hours of learning across 13 unique courses – which are the highest current totals among active Duke students.

Learning about Python was instrumental in Hawkins’ career development. Hawkins recently started a position as Senior Program Coordinator at the Nicholas School of the Environment, a job he found appealing because it involves creating data projects – and using his new computer programming skills.

“It’s not the same as a degree, but it communicates to future employers that you have initiative, that you are resourceful and that you can find answers on your own,” Hawkins said. “It’s a good professional development thing you can do if you have the time.”

How to sign up for Coursera

Log in https://online.duke.edu/coursera-for-duke/.

Use your NetID to log in and click “register” for any of the 4,000+ courses or specializations in the catalog.

All Duke Coursera courses are asynchronous (meaning they can be completed at any time).

While Coursera courses and specializations do not apply to a degree, many offer a certificate that can illustrate proficiency in a topic or skill and displayed on resumes and LinkedIn profiles.

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