My first course on Coursera, how was it?
The good and the bad.
I have just finished my first course on Coursera, which is titled “Introduction to Google SEO”.
This course is offered by the University of California, Davis. It is the first part out of 5 courses in UC Davis’s SEO Specialization.
Coursera described a specialization as “a series of courses that helps you master a skill”.
This particular course that I chose sits among the top of the list when you typed SEO in Coursera. The “Introduction to Google SEO” course has around 210k students. It has more students than the other options.
Why SEO? It began when I was looking around through job posting on LinkedIn back in August. I realized that SEO is an in-demand skill, especially with many brands going online due to the pandemic. I thought why don’t I try to learn about it.
Before I begin to the pros and cons, let me tell you some general information about Coursera. It was founded by two (now) adjunct computer science professors at Stanford University, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, in 2012.
Coursera stated that they have partnered with over 200 universities and companies, such as Yale University, Yonsei University, University of Manchester, Google, IBM, etc. On their website, Coursera claimed to have more than 82 million learners across the globe.
They offer courses about data science, business, health, personal development, until math and logic. You could also obtain a bachelor’s or master’s degree through Coursera.
Now, let’s start with the pros. First, the application process to get financial aid or scholarship, which I did, was very easy to do.
You only need to click on the “financial aid available” button on the course homepage and then answer a couple of questions. Mind you that the review process takes two weeks until you get the answer whether you got the aid or not.
Coursera also offers options to pay for the course certificate fee and subscription plans. You can also see most of the course’s materials for free using the audit mode. If you receive financial aid, you will be able to access all of the materials, do the assignments, and earn a certificate.
Secondly, I enjoyed the flexibility of self-paced courses because there might be times when I had something else to do.
There is a due date for the quiz in each week’s syllabus. But, it won’t affect your grade in most courses if you miss the deadline, according to Coursera’s Help Center page.
I found that setting up a goal had helped me stay motivated to finish the course. You can choose if you want to learn for 2 or 3 or 5 days a week. This option is available in the course’s overview.
Next, the course was well structured and covered the basics of SEO. As someone who had no prior knowledge about SEO, the course really delivered in teaching the basics about it.
Although, it was only the surface of SEO. I feel like I need more information to develop a thorough SEO strategy.
Just a reminder, this is the first part of UC Davis’s series of courses on SEO. So, there will be more information in the next part.
I also give the instructor’s credibility a plus point. She, Rebekah May, has been in the industry for over 12 years with experiences as a consultant, worked in an agency, and even in-house.
Moreover, I finished the course in around 4 weeks which later rewarded with a certificate. Honestly, this is what has drawn me in to take a course on Coursera.
The idea of learning a new skill through a 100% online platform at your own pace (and free if you managed to get financial aid) sounds so appealing to me.
You can easily add the certificate to your LinkedIn profile. Coursera will give you the credential URL and additional info to enter in your Licenses & Certifications section in LinkedIn. You can check mine here.
The course went smoothly. I had no difficulties in using the platform.
Actually, the page didn’t work smoothly when I was using Safari on my Macbook Pro mid-2015 edition. I have no idea why. But, it worked well when I switched to Google Chrome.
In the platform, the transcript of each video is also available below it. You can directly save parts of the transcript to your notes.
I am old-school, so I write them down. It also helps me to understand the materials better. It's just my preference and may differ for each person. But, now you know that the option is available for you to use it.
On the other hand, I wish the course were more interactive, including with the instructor. I was hoping to get more feedback from the instructor.
There are a few assignments where you have to answer the questions in the discussion forums. The assignments will be related to the previous materials on the video. But, most of them are not obligatory.
I have also found some answers which are not related to the question at all. For example, some people only typed “-” or just an alphabet in the answer. Because participation is optional, it won’t affect your score, even if you skip these assignments.
Another thing that I want to bring up is the lack of variation in the quiz. At the end of each week’s course, you have to take a quiz with multiple choice answers. Each quiz will be graded and determine whether you pass this course or not.
To be honest, I failed once in one of the quizzes in this course. Don’t panic, you can easily retake the quiz.
Coursera gives you two attempts to take the quiz every 8 hours. So, if you failed once, you still have another chance to try. If you fail during the second try, you will have to wait for 8 hours to get other attempts.
I retake the course immediately after I failed, but the questions were the same as before. They just put the multiple choice answers in a slightly different position.
I wish they could have given another set of questions. I would like to thoroughly test my understanding of the materials.
Now, let’s talk about the price. I think it’s subjective to each person, as some might say it is expensive and some might say otherwise. Coursera offers a few plans.
With Coursera Plus, you will only be able to access over 90% of the courses, such as from Google, Yale University, John Hopkins University, etc.
If you want to take many courses (like, really, a lot of courses), you might find the monthly subscription worth paying for. But, if you only wanted to take a few courses, it is quite expensive. I think it would depend on your needs and financial capability.
I personally like that there is an option to get financial aid if you can’t afford it. On a side note, each time you apply, you will only get financial aid for one course in the specialization. That means you have to do the whole process again for each course in the specialization to get the scholarship.
It might be a little extra work and a whole lot of waiting. I don’t mind it though, since the process is relatively easy. It’s a really good option for those who need it.
I learned a lot about SEO during this course. I’m currently enrolled in UC Davis’s second course called “Google SEO Fundamentals”. Thankfully, my financial aid was also approved for this second course.
I can tell you that the materials in the second course are getting more practical than in the first course.
In conclusion, I think Coursera is a great option to try learning something. I would even suggest you try it. Soon, I hope they added more courses about language learning.
Furthermore, it would be a waste to not use the knowledge you’ve just learned. Regarding that, I made a food blog! I will be implementing SEO best practices to my website. If you have any suggestions or comments, do not hesitate to contact me :)
