I was really excited when I first heard of Coursera. I tried and completed a couple of courses, and learned a lot interesting subjects. Unfortunately, life continues, and we do not have the desired time for what we want, when we want. In fact, I enrolled in a couple more courses, that I did not finish. In fact, I didn’t even go through week one.
In the next semester I look up to having a few more time, and was preparing to do a couple more courses in Coursera. Unfortunately, the interesting courses are now part of paid specializations. My main issue is not on them being paid, but the way they are paid. Coursera works on a subscription basis. Thus, if one doesn’t have full time to listen to the material, study, and perform the evaluation tasks, we need to pay for extra time.
While I agree that subscription makes sense, specially for people with time to do more than one course in parallel, for people with limited time, it is an expensive way of learning. And having limited time does not mean to have a good paying job.
This is my view on Coursera policy right now, and I challenge them to rethink on their approach to their motto: Education for Everyone (that is able to pay).