One question I get asked all the time here at Class Central is: are Coursera courses really free?
在班級中心,我一直被問到的一個問題是: Coursera課程真的免費嗎?
Coursera’s user interface is intentionally designed to push learners towards Coursera’s paid offerings. It often confuses new learners regarding what content is actually free on the platform, and how to go about signing up for it.
Coursera的用戶界面經過精心設計,旨在將學習者推向Coursera的付費產品。 它經常使新學習者對平臺上實際上免費的內容以及如何進行注冊感到困惑。
Since I’ve answered this question hundreds of times before, I decided to write an article clarifying this. I will also try to answer some basic questions about Coursera, and update this article regularly as Coursera changes its policies and UI.
由于我已經回答了數百次這個問題,所以我決定寫一篇文章澄清這一問題。 我還將嘗試回答有關Coursera的一些基本問題,并在Coursera更改其政策和用戶界面時定期更新本文。
If you plan to recommend Coursera to someone, maybe you can point them to this article as well.
如果您打算向某人推薦Coursera,也許您也可以將其指向這篇文章。
什么是Coursera? (What is Coursera?)
Coursera is an online education provider that offers online courses, popularly known as “MOOCs” or Massive Open Online Courses, from top universities around the world.
Coursera是在線教育提供商,提供來自世界各地頂級大學的在線課程,通常稱為“ MOOC”或“大規模開放在線課程”。
Currently, Coursera has 150 such university partners from 29 countries around the world. These partners include Stanford, Duke, Penn, Princeton, Michigan, Peking, and HEC Paris. Coursera has also started partnering with companies like IBM, Google, and PwC who are launching online courses on Coursera’s platform.
目前,Coursera有來自全球29個國家的150個此類大學合作伙伴。 這些合作伙伴包括斯坦福大學 , 杜克大學 , 賓夕法尼亞大學 , 普林斯頓大學 , 密歇根大學 , 北京大學和巴黎 高等 商學院 。 Coursera還開始與IBM , Google和PwC等公司合作,這些公司正在Coursera的平臺上啟動在線課程。
您可以免費獲得Coursera證書嗎? (Can you get a Coursera Certificate for Free?)
Certificates were free in Coursera’s early days. Unfortunately, you can’t get a free certificate for completing Coursera courses now. MOOC providers across the board have stopped offering free certificates for completing their online courses.
證書在Coursera的早期是免費的。 遺憾的是,您現在無法獲得免費的Coursera課程證書。 各個MOOC提供商都已停止 提供免費證書來完成其在線課程。
Coursera仍然免費嗎? (Is Coursera Still Free?)
Yes and no. There are definitely a few courses on courses on Coursera that are paid only. Examples of these would be Writing Skills for Engineering Leaders or Google’s Computing, Storage and Security with Google Cloud Platform. At this point, I am not sure how many of these kinds of courses are out there.
是的,沒有。 在Coursera上的課程中肯定有幾門課程是付費的。 例如, 面向工程負責人的寫作技巧或具有Google Cloud Platform的Google的計算,存儲和安全性 。 在這一點上,我不確定其中有多少種此類課程。
At the time of writing this article, a vast majority of the courses have some element of “free” — mostly the videos are free to watch, but you need to pay if you want access to graded assignments and certificates.
在撰寫本文時,絕大多數課程都具有“免費”的元素-大多數視頻是免費觀看的,但是如果您想獲得分級的作業和證書,則需要付費。
If you search for free courses on Coursera’s website, you will see a sticky note at the top of the search results basically saying what I mentioned. However, Coursera still has a few courses for which even the graded assignments are completely free.
如果您在Coursera的網站上搜索免費課程 ,您將在搜索結果的頂部看到一個便箋,基本上說了我提到的內容。 但是,Coursera仍有一些課程,即使是評分作業也完全免費。
記得審核 (Remember to Audit)
Coursera calls having access to the free portions of a course “auditing the course.” I first came across this concept of auditing when I went to Georgia Tech, where I got my Masters in Computer Science. I got my undergrad degree in India and we didn’t have the concept of auditing there.
Coursera稱有權訪問課程的免費部分是“審核課程”。 當我去佐治亞理工學院時,我首先遇到了審計的概念,在那里我獲得了計算機科學碩士學位。 我在印度獲得了本科學位,而我們在印度沒有審計的概念。
Here is a quick definition from a university’s FAQ
這是大學常見問題解答中的快速定義
Auditing a course allows a student to take a class without the benefit of a grade or credit for a course.
對課程進行審核可使學生在沒有成績或學分的情況下上課 。
So when you are trying to enroll in Coursera courses for free, look for the word audit. We will explain below — with screenshots — how to sign up for Coursera’s audit mode, but Coursera keeps tweaking their UI or testing different iterations so what’s on your screen on Coursera’s website may be different to what’s presented below.
因此,當您嘗試免費注冊Coursera課程時,請尋找audit一詞。 我們將在下面(帶屏幕截圖)說明如何注冊Coursera的審核模式,但是Coursera會不斷調整其UI或測試不同的迭代,因此Coursera網站上屏幕上的內容可能與以下內容有所不同。
如何免費注冊Coursera課程? (How to Enroll in Coursera Courses for Free?)
查找課程頁面- 您只能通過各個課程頁面免費注冊 (Find the Course Page — You can only sign up for free via individual course pages)
Coursera has two main products: online courses and Specializations.
Coursera有兩個主要產品:在線課程和專業化課程。
Specializations basically consist of a sequence of online courses designed to enable you to master a particular topic. Some Specializations have a capstone project as the last course in the sequence. Not all courses are part of Specializations, but a majority of courses that are newly launched are part of a Specialization.
專業基本上包括一系列旨在幫助您掌握特定主題的在線課程。 某些專業課程的最后一個課程是完成項目。 并非所有課程都是專業化課程的一部分,但是大部分新開設的課程都是專業化課程的一部分。
Some of the older courses that were around twelve weeks long have been converted into Specialization format, with the original course split into multiple courses.
一些大約十二周長的較舊的課程已轉換為專業化格式,原始課程分為多個課程。
As you browse/search courses on Coursera, you will notice that Specializations and courses are mixed together in results. For Specializations, you will see the number of courses in a given Specialization below its name. You will also notice that Specializations are listed higher in the rankings than regular courses.
當您在Coursera上瀏覽/搜索課程時,您會注意到專業化課程和課程在結果中混合在一起。 對于專業化,您將在其名稱下方看到給定專業化中的課程數量。 您還將注意到,專業化課程的排名高于常規課程。
Specializations pages do not allow you to sign up for their individual courses. If you click on the “enroll” button, you will only be given an option to pay for the Specialization.
專業頁面不允許您注冊他們的個人課程。 如果單擊“注冊”按鈕,則只能選擇支付專業化費用。
To sign up for free, you need to find the individual course pages. Unfortunately, even though it lists the courses in the Specialization, the Specialization page doesn’t link to the individual courses.
要免費注冊,您需要找到各個課程頁面。 不幸的是,即使它在“專業化”中列出了課程,“專業化”頁面也沒有鏈接到各個課程。
If you scroll down a bit you will see a list of courses that are part of the Specialization. To visit the course’s page, copy the course name and paste it in the search bar on Coursera.
如果向下滾動,您將看到屬于專業化課程的列表。 要訪問課程頁面,請復制課程名稱并將其粘貼到Coursera的搜索欄中。
Better yet, you could search for the course on Class Central — https://www.class-central.com/search. We will also show you results of similar courses that are not on Coursera.
更好的是,您可以在Class Central上搜索該課程— https://www.class-central.com/search 。 我們還將向您顯示不在Coursera上的類似課程的結果。
在課程頁面上注冊 (Enroll on the Course Page)
At this point, I am assuming you are on the Coursera course page of the course you are interested in, and that you are signed in to Coursera.
至此,我假設您正在您感興趣的課程的Coursera課程頁面上,并且您已登錄Coursera。
Coursera has two different monetization models for users to purchase the non-free portions of the course.
Coursera有兩種不同的獲利模型,供用戶購買課程的非免費部分。
The first is a straightforward model: buying certificates for individual courses. In this case, once you click on “enroll” you will see two options, one of which (“Full Course, No Certificate”) allows you to sign up for free (as shown below).
首先是一個簡單的模型:購買單個課程的證書。 在這種情況下,單擊“注冊”后,您將看到兩個選項,其中一個選項(“完整課程,無證書”)使您可以免費注冊(如下所示)。
Some courses might not have the “full course” option (i.e. the graded assignments are behind a paywall). In that case, the second option will show as “audit.” Select “audit” and then click on “continue” to sign up for free.
有些課程可能沒有“完整課程”選項(即,評分作業位于付費專區后面)。 在這種情況下,第二個選項將顯示為“審核”。 選擇“審核”,然后單擊“繼續”以免費注冊。
The second monetization method is a monthly subscription-based model. By paying a monthly subscription fee (starting from $39/month), you get access to premium features for all the courses that are part of the Specalization. Your access ends once you stop paying for the subscription.
第二種獲利方法是基于月度訂閱的模型。 通過支付每月的訂閱費(每月39美元起),您就可以使用Specalization中所有課程的高級功能。 一旦您停止支付訂閱費用,訪問便結束。
If you are signed into Coursera and on a course page for a course that is part of a Specialization, you will see the blue “enroll” button surrounded by green background. It will have the text “try for free” above it. Note: this button surrounded by green is only shown to users who are signed in to Coursera. Pricing information is not shown to learners who are not signed in.
如果您登錄到Coursera,并且在屬于專業化課程的課程頁面上,您將看到藍色的“注冊”按鈕,周圍是綠色背景。 上方會顯示“免費試用”字樣。 注意:此綠色包圍的按鈕僅向登錄Coursera的用戶顯示。 定價信息不會顯示給未登錄的學習者。
Once you click on “enroll,” you should see a popup that prompts you to sign up for a free trial (as shown below). At the bottom right of this popup, you will see a small “audit” link. Click on that link to enroll in the course for free. You will be able to watch videos and participate in discussion forums but won’t have access to graded assignments.
單擊“注冊”后,您應該會看到一個彈出窗口,提示您注冊免費試用版(如下所示)。 在此彈出式窗口的右下角,您將看到一個小的“審核”鏈接。 單擊該鏈接免費注冊課程。 您將能夠觀看視頻并參加討論論壇,但無法訪問已評分的作業。
I hope you found this guide useful. If you found any part of the guide confusing, do let me know and I will update the guide to be clearer. Also, do comment if you find a Coursera course that doesn’t fit the patterns described above.
希望本指南對您有所幫助。 如果您發現該指南的任何部分令人困惑,請告訴我,我將更新該指南以使其更加清晰。 另外,如果您發現不符合上述模式的Coursera課程,請發表評論。
翻譯自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-sign-up-for-coursera-courses-for-free-98266efaa531/