Turn your teaching expertise into a Coursera learning experience.
This guide and your Duke Coursera Design Template are meant to be used together, with a Learning Experience Designer (LXD) from Duke’s Center for Teaching and Learning.
You’ll return to different parts of this guide throughout development. Focus on the page that supports your current work, then use the template to record the decisions you make with your Learning Experience Designer.
Before your first meeting
Explore this overview and preview the sample templates to get a sense of the process.
Your project design templates
Your Learning Experience Designer will share the specific templates your project needs before your first design meeting.
Preview the design templates ↓Throughout development
Return to the page that matches what you are working on and use your project templates to capture the decisions you make together.
What is Coursera?
Coursera is a global online learning platform where learners take short, self-paced courses to build practical skills.
Learners come from around the world and bring a wide range of backgrounds and goals. Many are working professionals fitting study around a job, so they move through material on their own schedule and without an instructor present to answer questions in the moment.
That audience shapes the design decisions in this guide: courses are shorter than a semester, organized around skills learners can apply, and built so that explanation, practice, and feedback are all included in the materials themselves.
See it in practice
Duke already offers courses and Specializations on Coursera. Browsing a few is a good way to see the format before you plan your own. If you’re new to Coursera, you can also learn more about accessing the platform through Duke.
Explore Duke courses on Coursera ↗ Learn about Coursera access through Duke ↗Step one
How your Duke course maps to Coursera
These are rough comparisons, not one-to-one equivalents. Read each row from left to right.
Your Duke course
Your Coursera course
Your whole course
A semester of material
A Specialization
3–6 Courses · 8–48 hours of learner time
A unit or theme
Often several weeks of your syllabus
A Course
3–6 Modules · 2–8 hours of learner time
A topic inside that unit
A concept, method, or skill
A Module
~10 Learning Assets · 30 min–2 hours of learner time
A lecture, reading, activity, or assessment
The pieces you already have
Learning Assets
Video, reading, activity, quiz
Note on terminology
In this guide, terms like Specialization, Course, Module, Learning Assets, Readings, etc. refer to Coursera learning products. They are capitalized intentionally to distinguish the Coursera learning experience from a traditional for-credit course, class session, or academic program.
Step two
How the pieces fit together
A Coursera learning experience is built from connected pieces: a Specialization includes Courses, a Course includes Modules, and a Module includes the Learning Assets learners use along the way. Some Modules organize those assets into optional Lessons.
Specialization
What larger goal are learners working toward?
Open →
Course
What meaningful skills should learners develop?
Open →
Module
What smaller learning steps will help them get there?
Open →
Learning Assets
What experience will best support each step?
Open →
Step three
Can you use materials you already have?
In most cases, yes. You and your Learning Experience Designer will look at six things together as you decide what can be adapted for a Coursera audience.
Start with skills
Begin with what learners should be able to do.
+Coursera learners are often professionals building a specific skill. We’ll begin with what they should be able to do by the end, then work backward to the materials, framing, and assessments that will help them get there.
Keep videos focused
Shorter, focused videos tend to work best for learners.
+Learners tend to engage best with videos under about ten minutes. We can help identify natural breaks in longer recordings and shape them into shorter, focused segments.
Balance learning formats
Readings can be valuable, but learners also need opportunities to practice.
+A course made up mostly of readings may not provide enough variety or practice. Together, we’ll look at where a video, audio conversation, visual, or hands-on activity might communicate an idea more effectively.
Build in accessibility
It is easier to plan for accessibility before materials are produced.
+Clear structure, readable language, accessible documents and slides, meaningful alt text, appropriate color contrast, and multiple ways to engage with content help make a course more usable and welcoming for everyone.
Check content permissions
Materials created by others may need clearance for public, commercial use.
+Images, figures, video clips, datasets, and other materials you did not create may require permission or an appropriate license. We’ll review them together to make sure they can be used with a public, global audience.
Plan for tool access
Choose tools learners can access freely and widely.
+Paid or license-restricted tools may be out of reach for learners outside Duke or unavailable in some countries. When a tool is essential, we’ll plan together for how learners can access it.
Preview the Design Templates
Your Learning Experience Designer will share the working templates selected for your project. These view-only samples can help you see what to expect and how the pages of this guide connect to the decisions you will record.