Classroom Manager vs. Coursera

As we use Classroom Manager exclusively for internal purposes, I can only say something about this area. I would definitely recommend it, it's a great tool. Whenever we use it, we feel that people really thought about the way they have designed the software and the functions they have added. The main reason why we decided on this tool was because of its extensive functions. We currently only use like 10% of what it could do (subjective estimation), but we love that whatever learning challenge arises, the Classroom Manager can handle it.

The Coursera platform can be a useful part of your overall learning content portfolio if utilized correctly. It's fantastic for asynchronous courses that don't necessarily need a dedicated faculty member (though I'd highly recommend at least having some discussion moderators/student workers) and for offering MOOCs. The ability for the learners to contribute translations really makes it ideal for the international learning community - I am always amazed to see a course we launched with 2-3 languages to quickly have 10-12 more added. This feature really helps expand the audience reach and Coursera has such a large following already that it can grow seemingly overnight.

Incentivized

• The automatic generation of certificates after an employee has successfully completed their mandatory training.
• The software supports a variety of learning media (we work a lot with PDF and video).
• A great analytic & insight tool that helps us to understand more about the learning behavior of our employees

• Interaction: the student learns by doing. For programming courses, this means programming!
• Assessments: the courses I'd taken ask students to grade each others work with a rubric. This is hugely effective and permits tests and quizzes to be other than multiple choice.
• Creativity and enthusiasm of the instructors. Some of the approaches demonstrated real out-of-the-box thinking by the instructors. For example, the Rice Python course was a self-contained website requiring no installation of IDE on one's computer, and the final project was a working version of Asteroids.
• Low cost of entry: most of the course I enrolled in were free, with an optional fee for certifications. This really gives people the freedom to explore learning. It's almost like a Public Library of Learning.
• Coursera forces a weekly discipline on the user with lectures and assignments and this really motivates one to put in the effort.

Incentivized

• The tool has a ton of functions, which makes the navigation in the backend sometimes a [little] tricky.
• Nothing to add :-)

• Some of the courses (very few) have some old information (more than 2 years), and in some areas like technology the information has to be very new and updated.
• Some professors or people doing videos are not good in front of the camera, they should train their people a little bit more for those things.

Incentivized

Constantly renewing already. One of my favourite MOOC platforms.

Incentivized

User-friendly and developer-friendly Web UI.

Incentivized

I’ve used it a couple of times and... that did great. They take their time, but in the end they solve your issues.

Incentivized

Coursera is familiar, intuitive, compatible and easy to use and implement.

Incentivized

The process of choosing an LMS took several months and involved many different people and wide rating criteria. What convinced us and made us choose Classroom Manager was the feeling we got every time we used the software or interacted with the company. They know exactly what they are doing, they were always there to support us and as already mentioned: when using the software and browsing through the functions, you just feel that this was created by experts that know their stuff.

I think Coursera has the best overall interface. I think you will find that different platforms go in different directions, and have different specialities. For the most part the differences are more in the types of courses they offer than one being particularly better than the other, so it comes down to content for me.

Incentivized

• It saves a significant amount of time and money to have everything in one central place.
• In our industry having skilled people with the right knowledge is a MUST to stay ahead of the competition. With the analytic & insight tool, we can track the learning process of our employees at a glance.
• One of the, if not THE most important point: Employee satisfaction. We have a dedicated area where we provide a wide range of free courses, covering a variety of topics. It started as a test to see if anyone is even interested but quickly became a fundamental part of our company branding strategy.

• The greatest benefit of Coursera is access to quality courses on various subjects that you can either browse or dive in deeply. Customizable, flexible and accessible.
• Helps our department to recommend trainees courses on this website and gain important knowledge. Also, the courses are provided by big-name universities which helps students in their careers
• Developing and exploring professional skills.

Incentivized