n you put coursera courses on your UCAS application ??

It's not an official course, so no you can't include them in the education section. You can talk about them in your personal statement, though

Reply 2

Original post by Juno

It's not an official course, so no you can't include them in the education section. You can talk about them in your personal statement, though

Well actually you are very wrong. According to UCAS Coursera certificates should be listed in your qualification page. However the university of your choice will decide if it would be considerate

Reply 3

Original post by kostasxantho

Well actually you are very wrong. According to UCAS Coursera certificates should be listed in your qualification page. However the university of your choice will decide if it would be considerate

Only if it leads to a qualification - which most don't

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Reply 4

chickenonsteroids

You'd have to take the advanced track courses (which require a fee) in order for them to count as actual courses. I took a few but completely forgot about them when it came to UCAS. You can mention it in your personal statement but they don 't actually count as qualifications.

Reply 5

MarsManc

1

I too am interested in Pharmacy and I was looking at this site and edX. But would you say these are worth it, would the admissions tutors be impressed if you did these and mentioned them in your personal statement?

Reply 6

Original post by chickenonsteroids

You'd have to take the advanced track courses (which require a fee) in order for them to count as actual courses. I took a few but completely forgot about them when it came to UCAS. You can mention it in your personal statement but they don 't actually count as qualifications.

No actually not at all. Any certificate or Statement of Accomplishment coursera gives counts as actual courses. Trust me i have been using coursera so many years and asked so many different people. Every certificate/statement you get from a course can be considerate as qualification. However the advanced track courses are more reliable. I have listed my 6 Statements in my UCAS application however my university will decide if they accept it or not. Some do some others dont. For example the University of Edinburgh offers some courses at coursera. Do you think they wouldn't considerate their owns statements?

Reply 7

chickenonsteroids

Original post by kostasxantho

No actually not at all. Any certificate or Statement of Accomplishment coursera gives counts as actual courses. Trust me i have been using coursera so many years and asked so many different people. Every certificate/statement you get from a course can be considerate as qualification. However the advanced track courses are more reliable. I have listed my 6 Statements in my UCAS application however my university will decide if they accept it or not. Some do some others dont. For example the University of Edinburgh offers some courses at coursera. Do you think they wouldn't considerate their owns statements?

I know that they offer certificates but they aren't reputable as proper ones. You wouldn't list 5 coursera courses and expect an employer to take them really seriously.

University of London offers courses, so do American universities. It'd put you in a good light but not class as a proper qualification. That's why advanced track was brought in.

Reply 8

Original post by chickenonsteroids

I know that they offer certificates but they aren't reputable as proper ones. You wouldn't list 5 coursera courses and expect an employer to take them really seriously.

University of London offers courses, so do American universities. It'd put you in a good light but not class as a proper qualification. That's why advanced track was brought in.

However only a very small percent of universities has join the signature track. I am not saying that you can get a a job or a coursera certificates worths something. However if you list in on UCAS the universities will have a positive view. Even if they dont recognize they will considerate that you are a person that wants to enchant his/her knowledge.

Reply 9

Eldred

Original post by kostasxantho

Well actually you are very wrong. According to UCAS Coursera certificates should be listed in your qualification page. However the university of your choice will decide if it would be considerate

I suppose you're referring to the Education Section of the UCAS form; In that case- which "school/university/centre" would you pick? I'm really curious- I did take some subject related Coursera modules and would really like to list them.

Reply 10

BerlinFilmFan

2

Last year, someone posted this very question to the UCAS Facebook page and received the following answer:

If it's a certificated qualification then you can put it down. However, it's up to your university choices as to whether they will consider it as part of their entry requirements.

https://www.facebook.com/ucasonline/posts/505473902819061

Reply 11

Minerva

There is a distinction to be made here between a course where you are awarded a certificate of attendance/completion and one where you are awarded a certificate of attainment.

If the course is formally assessed and you only get a certificate if you reach a minimum standard (ie attainment), that goes in the Education section.

If the course is not formally assessed and everyone who has participated gets a certificate to say they've done so, then it can't go in the Education section. In that case your participation can be mentioned in your PS; alternatively, it could be mentioned in the section where you are invited to put in details of any activities you've undertaken as preparation for university.

Reply 12

Original post by Eldred

I suppose you're referring to the Education Section of the UCAS form; In that case- which "school/university/centre" would you pick? I'm really curious- I did take some subject related Coursera modules and would really like to list them.

You use the details that are on your certificate.

Original post by Minerva

There is a distinction to be made here between a course where you are awarded a certificate of attendance/completion and one where you are awarded a certificate of attainment.

If the course is formally assessed and you only get a certificate if you reach a minimum standard (ie attainment), that goes in the Education section.

If the course is not formally assessed and everyone who has participated gets a certificate to say they've done so, then it can't go in the Education section. In that case your participation can be mentioned in your PS; alternatively, it could be mentioned in the section where you are invited to put in details of any activities you've undertaken as preparation for university.

With coursera, it's not really a certificate of attendance as such, but more that the basic course is free. It's therefore assessed, but they put no effort into things such as plagiarism - so they can't give you a certificate of achievement as theoretically your friend could have done it. It is possible to sign up for a course and do no work, but that won't give anything as you will fail.
If you pay for the module and use "Signature Track" then they do check for plagiarism and will award you a certificate of achievement, as they can be sure it is all your own work.

Reply 13

Minerva

Original post by Juno

With coursera, it's not really a certificate of attendance as such, but more that the basic course is free. It's therefore assessed, but they put no effort into things such as plagiarism - so they can't give you a certificate of achievement as theoretically your friend could have done it. It is possible to sign up for a course and do no work, but that won't give anything as you will fail.
If you pay for the module and use "Signature Track" then they do check for plagiarism and will award you a certificate of achievement, as they can be sure it is all your own work.

Up to a point - nothing to stop your Auntie Mabel from doing the work for you and you submitting it; no plagiarism detector will pick that up.

I was using the term 'formal assessment' to mean what happens when a course is properly accredited and where there are checks in place to prevent plagiarism and other academic delinquency - including maintenance and consistency of standards. For my money I don't think any of these coursera options, even the paid-for ones, belongs in a qualifications section of an academic application, but maybe I'm being picky....

Reply 14

Well it's complicated.
To make it Simple, Signature track/advance track can be easier for a uni to consider it as a certificate. You can list it at the education section as other (non-eu qualifications). However its up to the university if they consider it as a certificate or not. If you have a regular statement of accomplishment you can mention about it at your personal statement. I am unaware what happens with Edx because it's certificates have a verification code that coursera's lack.

Reply 15

Original post by Minerva

Up to a point - nothing to stop your Auntie Mabel from doing the work for you and you submitting it; no plagiarism detector will pick that up.

I was using the term 'formal assessment' to mean what happens when a course is properly accredited and where there are checks in place to prevent plagiarism and other academic delinquency - including maintenance and consistency of standards. For my money I don't think any of these coursera options, even the paid-for ones, belongs in a qualifications section of an academic application, but maybe I'm being picky....

That's true for any distance learning course. You wouldn't suggest that the OU isn't reputable, and many modules don't have exams so they have no way of knowing it isn't yours. Even when the modules do have exams someone else could submit the assignments and then you could take the exam.

I did a course with Vision2Learn and got a qualification, with nothing on the certificate to indicate it was through Vision2Learn and not a more traditional method, yet they put no effort into checking it was my work.

Reply 16

Pessimisterious

12

I did a certified Astronomy course (loads of physics and maths involved) through coursera. I didn't list it in my education section but wrote about it fairly comprehensively in my personal statement - I applied to do physics.

I guess it would've been better for me to list it as an actual qualification, but I didn't know at the time. Ah well!

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Reply 17

Minerva