Coursera vs. Equatio

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

If I have a student doing higher-level math, Equatio would be my recommended tool for digital access. However, it has too many options and would be confusing for younger students. Kami, Google Docs, or Kiwi Write math would be better for those students. It is also very pricey, so we would choose a cheaper tool to do the job.

Incentivized

• 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

• Edit tool. I am able to add formulas to my google slides very easily.
• I am able to use Mathspace to create for example math manipulatives.
• I am able to have a graphing (desmos) tool easily accesible for when working with systems of linear equations.

Incentivized

• 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

• I would like to try voice typing of math equations.
• I would like to type math equations in multiple colors.
• I want to be sent an infographic in my email detailing all the ways I should use Equation, but I don't yet know about it.

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

Anytime I have had an issue with text help software, the support team is always very helpful. When necessary, we have phone conversations or video meetings to troubleshoot the situation. This means that the solution happens very quickly. Often, they ask me for a screenshot or video to help them replicate the issue.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

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

Each product has benefits over the other. MathType's older versions had their head and shoulders above their competition. Their new version removed a lot of features, integration, and capabilities. Equatio is starting to take the lead over MathType and is evolving constantly.

Incentivized

• 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

• Saved me lots of time looking for what I ultimately was able to create myself with Equatio
• Mathspace is an invaluable. I wish We could assign things to the students and have them work and then send the assignment back to us. Right now we can only assign things to them.
• Being able to talk to write equations is also a huge timesaver.

Incentivized