Tech subjects top the polls at Coursera

The online learning provider’s most popular courses this year have been STEM rather than arts-related subjects

Charley Rogers

Global online learning provider, Coursera has become a top destination for people around the world to gain skills that help them succeed personally and professionally. With over 29 million registered learners – many of them adults looking for a leg up in their careers – the global online learning company is able to track global trends in the job skills that are growing in demand the fastest.

Nikhil Sinha, Coursera’s Chief Content Officer, says: “2017’s top 10 most popular courses show that cutting edge tech skills continue to be the most sought-after skills in online courses. This year, the world witnessed significant technology advancements that will have long term implications for our economy and the way we work. Artificial intelligence dominated this year taking three of the spots in our top 10 courses lists including the Machine Learning and Deep Learning courses taught by our co-founder Andrew Ng and a Machine Learning course from the University of Toronto. Blockchain has also burst onto the scene, putting Princeton’s Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency course on our top 10 list this year.”

“It’s not just technology skills that we see at the top,” Nikhil adds. “The basic learning and information retention skills taught in our consistently popular Learning How to Learn course are extremely sought after by people of all ages. We’d recommend this class to everyone as the world becomes a place that rewards lifelong learning more and more.”

“The trends we saw in 2017 will continue into 2018. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, and anything at the intersection of business and data analytics are all areas that will continue to grow in importance. Expect to see more courses on Coursera in these topics next year.”

“The rise of automation threatening to displace jobs will drive more adults to look for credentials that help them enter new career paths in 2018. For example, we are launching an IT Support Certificate with Google in January. This is just one example of a high value credential we’ll be launching next year designed to make it possible for anyone without experience to start a well-paying career in technology.”

See below for the full list of most popular online courses in 2017 and 2016.

UK: Most Popular Courses of 2017*

1	Machine Learning	Stanford University
2	Neural Networks and Deep Learning	deeplearning.ai
3	Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects	University of California, San Diego
4	Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies	Princeton University
5	Introduction to Mathematical Thinking	Stanford University
6	Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)	University of Michigan
7	Financial Markets	Yale University
8	Introduction to Data Science in Python	University of Michigan
9	Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential	McMaster University
10	Neural Networks for Machine Learning	University of Toronto

*Based on average daily enrolments in 2017.

UK: Most Popular Courses of 2016*

1	Machine Learning	University of Washington
2	Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects	University of California, San Diego
3	Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)	University of Michigan
4	R Programming	Johns Hopkins University
5	Seeing Through Photographs	The Museum of Modern Art
6	The Data Scientist’s Toolbox	Johns Hopkins University
7	Buddhism and Modern Psychology	Princeton University
8	Grammar and Punctuation	University of California, Irvine
9	Functional Programming Principles in Scala	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
10	Mastering Data Analysis in Excel	Duke University