I started using Coursera in 2014. The first course I took was “The Clinical Psychology of Children and Young People” – a free course by the university of Edinburgh. The course is, unfortunately no longer offered on Coursera. At that time, if I remember well, courses were given with certificates for free. Perhaps this is because, at that time they were still in the early stages of MOOCs. Now you may have to pay to get a certificate for certain courses.

It was years later after that course, that I started looking into getting back to learning. It was sometime last year. I was browsing through the offered courses and came upon the course “Learning how to learn“. Well how about that? I never seen courses on learning how learn, so the subject intrigued me, and I wanted to know what it’s all about. I signed up for it right away. The course is free to enroll at that time, but I could choose to pay about $49 to get a certificate for it. I wasn’t trying to get a job with it but wanted the knowledge, so I opted out the certificate. Though if I change my mind in the future, I can still get it by paying the said amount.

I have signed up and completed 6 other courses since then. Some free, some paid for the certificates. I just love it. The courses are divided to weekly modules. Some courses last for 4 weeks some 6 and even more than that. At the end of every week there will be an assessment of what you’ve learnt for that week. The questions could be objectives and some you will have to create essays or PowerPoint presentation that your peers will assess.

The last course I completed was on the 28^th of May. It was the Excel Skills for Business: Intermediate II. I completed 3 out of 4 courses of the series. I would like to continue with the 4^th one, which is the advance level, but I will have to postpone it for now as I must concentrate on my driving license obtainment. After that, I will sign up for it. This is the first course that I paid for on Coursera. I use excel daily for work and I felt that it would be good to increase my knowledge on how to use this powerful office tool. For this course, to complete the weekly assessment you will have to pay a fee. I felt that, even so, it was worth it. I understand that you can learn for free online, but I know my limitations, I am one of those people who needs structure and the weekly assessment kept me on track. 

For people who love learning, I think this platform is worth to look into. I can see myself using it for years to come.