Coursera Dabbles in Cohort-Based Learning with University Certificates
Coursera’s newest microcredential includes live online classes, office hours with instructors, and projects.
Cohort-Based Courses or CBC are a new buzzword that certain EdTech startups and their investors are trying to push. Now the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) has reached bigger providers like Skillshare and Coursera who are experimenting with this format.
Proponents of CBC claim that this is a new kind of format, but online courses with fixed start/end dates and live sessions have been around at least since I started Class Central a decade ago.
Universities have been offering these courses for a long time under the banner of Professional or Executive Education. They generally cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per course and involve live sessions with the instructor.
The current trend of CBCs extends the opportunity to “influencers” to monetize their audience through online courses.
Recently, we also jumped on the “Cohorts” bandwagon when we rebranded our Study Group experiments to Class Central Cohorts. Our approach is to leverage the vast ecosystem of open courses and build a social learning layer on top of it.
Our Cohorts can be led by a learner, by the instructor, or by another expert. And they’re free. Check our Spring 2022 line up here.
Coursera University Certificates
Recently, as I was working on the end-of-year analysis, I noticed that Coursera had launched University Certificates, which are cohort-based and include live classes, office hours with instructors, and projects.
Note that unlike Coursera’s other microcredentials, University Certificates are issued exclusively by the university: their certificate of completion doesn’t mention Coursera, only the university. For instance, University Certificates offered by IIT Bombay look like this:
Currently there are 16 such certificates, ranging from $1,200 to $3000. Only three come from US universities: Dartmouth, Duke, and ASU. The rest come from India: IIT Bombay, IIM Kozhikode, IIT Roorkee, and IIM Calcutta.
As far as I can tell, most of them (if not all) have yet to go live. They’re scheduled to start in 2022.
| Certificate | University | Length | Price |
| Digital Transformation | Dartmouth | 6 months | $2,220 |
| Product Management | IIM Kozhikode | 6 months | $1,500 |
| Digital Transformation | IIT Bombay | 4 months | $1,770 |
| Power Electronics and Motors for Electric Vehicles (EVs) | IIT Bombay | 4.5 month | $1,416 |
| Data-Driven Decision Making | IIM Kozhikode | 6 months | $1,500 |
| Strategic Management | IIM Kozhikode | 6 months | $1,500 |
| Business Management | IIM Kozhikode | 8–9 months | $2,500 |
| Marketing Strategy | IIM Kozhikode | 6 months | $1,500 |
| Post Graduate Certificate in VLSI Design | IIT Roorkee | 6 months | $1,500 |
| Post Graduate Certificate in 5G Technology and IoT | IIT Roorkee | 6 months | $1,200 |
| Post Graduate Certificate in Data Science & Machine Learning | IIT Roorkee | 6 months | $1,500 |
| Post Graduate Certificate in Advanced Machine Learning & AI | IIT Roorkee | 6 months | $1,500 |
| Management Science | IIM Calcutta | 6 months | NA |
| Supply Chain Analytics | IIM Calcutta | 6 months | NA |
| Blockchain Applications | Duke | 3–4 months | $3,000 |
| English Proficiency for Graduate Studies | ASU | 2 months | $1,500 |
Skillshare Chroma Courses
In late October, Skillshare announced Chroma Courses, their attempt at Cohorts. So far three of them have been announced. They are all 4 weeks long, cost $499, start on January 3rd, and are limited to 50 seats. Here are the Chroma Courses available so far:
- Develop Your Signature Photo Style With Brandon Woelfel
- Build Your Brand & Business with Jeff Staple
- Make & Sell Watercolor Art With Cat Coquillette
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