Around six months ago, online course provider Coursera established a platform-wide discussion community. I wrote about it in February for Class Central, and mentioned it briefly in my March 19^th post for Online Learning Success. In January, while researching the community for these posts, I joined up and posted in some of the topic threads.

Since then, I have regularly clicked over to the Coursera learner community (select COMMUNITY then Learners at the bottom of the Coursera homepage) to check the discussions and see what other threads I can join. More are appearing all the time. In mid-February, there were over 600 threads. A month later, there were 700 and now the number of threads is nearing 1000.

How is it Organized?

Threads are grouped into four major categories, which are further divided into several sub-categories.

The first category listed is the Coursera Common Room which includes many threads on general interest topics: Events, News and Announcements; Networking and Social Discussion; Study Tips; Community Help and Questions; and Course Suggestions.

Next come the Subject Discussions in five fields: Data Science; Computer Science; Business; Health; and Personal Development. Since Data Science, Computer Science and Business are not my favourite fields, I was delighted to see the Health and Personal Development forums and avidly read some threads. The downside was, I found more interesting courses. Why aren’t there more hours in each day?

I believe plans are in the pipeline for eventually including all the Coursera subject areas.

The third major category is the Global Translator Community with just one sticky post that encourages people with translation skills to join the Coursera Global Translator Community. With interest in MOOCs continuing to expand worldwide, translation plays a vital part in online education. If you are fluent in English and another language, click the link and sign in with your Coursera account to select from a list of more than 50 languages.

Last but not least is the Beta Testing category. A year or so ago, I joined the beta testing group for a course and enjoyed the advance access to the course and helping iron out a few bugs. Once again, there just aren’t enough hours for me to do all the things I want. If you would like to join the beta testing group and give useful feedback, supply your details in the Beta Tester form. You should receive an invitation to join Beta testing within a fortnight. You can choose which, if any, course or courses to test each week.

How to make the most of the Coursera Community

Anyone can view the Coursera Community, but you need to sign in to follow threads or post your own observations. So far, nearly 5000 people have joined. You have to already be registered with Coursera to sign into the Community. Create a different username for the Coursera community discussion if you prefer. You can also delete your Coursera Community account without affecting your Coursera account. However, if you delete your Coursera account, your Coursera Community account is also deleted.

Add as much or as little to your profile as you wish. Include an image, your interests, job title, city and/or your country if desired. In your Settings tab, you can auto-follow threads when you post, choose whether or not to display your community title and badges, and other options.

What is your community title? Community titles include Newcomer, Participant, and Community Manager. Enthusiastic Community Managers monitor the discussions and keep them organized. Occasional threads had a note from a Community Manager explaining that they moved the post to its own thread for clarity.

Badges

A range of badges can be earned, such as Participant (for your first response post) and Poster (for starting a new thread). Coursera is not releasing information about how to earn badges in an effort to avoid spam or junk comments posted simply to earn badges. Don’t forget the Community Terms and Code of Conduct when posting.

Tags

You can tag other users with @. For instance, if you want to thank someone for a particularly helpful answer to your question, use @ with their username. You can also tag someone when answering their question or making a comment that you think will be particularly interesting to them.

Miscellaneous

For long threads such as New to the community? Introduce yourself here! you may prefer to sort the posts by Newest first or Best voted rather than the default Oldest first. And don’t forget to select Like on useful or interesting threads or posts. You can also navigate to individual pages of responses in long threads.

You can follow threads even if you haven’t posted in that thread. Share threads easily through Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. You can also rate your interest in threads by selecting a happy, neutral or unhappy emoji.

Use the Menu link near the top left to easily navigate to popular sections of the community, including threads “Updated since last visit” so you can quickly view new posts.

As I browsed threads, a list of Related Threads appeared on the right of my laptop screen. This list changed with every thread I viewed and occasionally I became frustrated because an interesting title would appear, but if I selected a different link, it would disappear. Eventually, I started right-clicking and opening threads in a new tab. This then led to at least 10 tabs open! I wanted to respond to so many interesting topics. I expect to continue participating in the community discussions.

Interesting Topics

Some threads have been started by the Community Managers who do a sterling job of keeping track of threads while letting others have their say. If a question is asked, Laura or Claire might weigh in after a few days if no one else has already answered. In this way, most threads are answered in a timely manner without everything being dominated by the managers.

April 29 – May 3 has been declared Cultural Connection Week and Coursera learners from around the world are invited to post about their own cultures. I couldn’t resist adding my voice to the thread about Australia. Why not join the conversation and feature your culture?

An interesting discussion is Give a shout-out to your favorite Coursera instructors! It’s a great way to find well-made courses. I need to learn more about using Excel, so am considering the Excel Specialization offered by Macquarie University.

How did you learn about Coursera? Answer the poll and let others know how Coursera came into your life.

A Final Thought

As the community continues to grow, it is likely to become a 24-7 conversation between thousands of participants from all over the world.

By Pat Bowden, published April 30, 2019.