Disclosure: Class Central is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

News

Coursera Pilots Mentor-Guided Courses

Coursera launches a mentorship program in which students can get 1-on-1 guidance and feedback from industry experts. We look at this, and also review the current state of expert-mentorship programs in MOOCs.

In March 2014, Coursera piloted a peer-to-peer tutoring program with the class that started Coursera, which was Andrew Ng’s ten week Machine Learning course. A small group of participants from the course’s previous runs, most of whom scored 100% on every programming assignment, had been pre-selected as candidates to offer tutoring services to new students. Tutoring sessions were to be offered over Google Helpouts. Google shutdown Google Helpouts in April 2015.

As far as we know, this pilot wasn’t extended to courses beyond Machine Learning.

Mentor-Guided Courses

Mentor Guided Courses - Mentors

One of the big complaints about MOOCs is the lack of guidance and interaction between students and people who are experts on the course subject.

Last week, Coursera launched Mentor-Guided Courses, a new initiative which allows learners to pay extra and get mentor support. “Mentors” in this sense are professionals who work in the industry that a given eligible course is based upon.

A mentor guided course will normally cost $248, but they are currently being offered at $149, which is a 40% discount. Students who sign up for a mentor guided course get 1:1 project feedback, email/forum support, and access to live weekly office hours.

Class Central did some further digging and figured out that there are currently ten mentor-guided courses. Each course is 3–4 weeks long and has 50 slots for mentor/mentee guidance. Those courses are:

  • Mastering Data Analysis in Excel
  • Fundamentals of Graphic Design
  • HTML, CSS and JavaScript
  • Object Oriented Programming in Java
  • Microeconomics: The Power of Markets
  • Programming and the Web for Beginners
  • Ruby on Rails: An Introduction
  • Human-Centered Design: an Introduction
  • Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management
  • Art & Activity: Interactive Strategies for Engaging with Art

Mentor Guided Courses - Description

Different Approaches, Same Destination?

Udacity had launched coaching way back in September 2013, but that program later morphed into Nanodegrees. For the last two years, Udacity has focused on scaling 1:1 feedback and coaching while Coursera has focused on scaling content. Now, in 2016, it looks like their positions are reversed.

Udacity has been able to scale 1:1 feedback by hiring Nanodegree graduates as Project Reviewers. It has built an army of graders all around the world and has reduced its average feedback time to two hours.  Udacity currently only has 12 Nanodegrees, and has plans to increase the number of Nanodegrees to 30+ by the end of 2016.

Coursera, on the other hand, has created 100+ Specializations with the help of its university partners, and is now looking to scale mentorship.

Dhawal Shah Profile Image

Dhawal Shah

Dhawal is the CEO of Class Central, the most popular search engine and review site for online courses and MOOCs. He has completed over a dozen MOOCs and has written over 200 articles about the MOOC space, including contributions to TechCrunch, EdSurge, Quartz, and VentureBeat.

Comments 2

  1. Michael Lipman

    Any idea what mentors get out of it? Payment, recognition, something else? Or if Coursera will also target course graduates as mentors?

    Reply
    • Cedric Wang

      It might be…. I used to be mentor of a MOOC I’ve graduated from.

      Reply

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. All comments go through moderation, so your comment won't display immediately.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Browse our catalog

Discover thousands of free online courses from top universities around the world like MIT, Stanford, and Harvard.

Browse all subjects