One question I get asked all the time here at Class Central is: are Coursera courses really free?

在班级中心，我一直被问到的一个问题是： Coursera课程真的免费吗？

Coursera’s user interface is intentionally designed to push learners towards Coursera’s paid offerings. It often confuses new learners regarding what content is actually free on the platform, and how to go about signing up for it.

Coursera的用户界面经过精心设计，旨在将学习者推向Coursera的付费产品。 它经常使新学习者对平台上实际上免费的内容以及如何进行注册感到困惑。

Since I’ve answered this question hundreds of times before, I decided to write an article clarifying this. I will also try to answer some basic questions about Coursera, and update this article regularly as Coursera changes its policies and UI.

由于我已经回答了数百次这个问题，所以我决定写一篇文章澄清这一问题。 我还将尝试回答有关Coursera的一些基本问题，并在Coursera更改其政策和用户界面时定期更新本文。

If you plan to recommend Coursera to someone, maybe you can point them to this article as well.

如果您打算向某人推荐Coursera，也许您也可以将其指向这篇文章。

什么是Coursera？ (What is Coursera?)

Coursera is an online education provider that offers online courses, popularly known as “MOOCs” or Massive Open Online Courses, from top universities around the world.

Coursera是在线教育提供商，提供来自世界各地顶级大学的在线课程，通常称为“ MOOC”或“大规模开放在线课程”。

Currently, Coursera has 150 such university partners from 29 countries around the world. These partners include Stanford, Duke, Penn, Princeton, Michigan, Peking, and HEC Paris. Coursera has also started partnering with companies like IBM, Google, and PwC who are launching online courses on Coursera’s platform.

目前，Coursera有来自全球29个国家的150个此类大学合作伙伴。 这些合作伙伴包括斯坦福大学 ， 杜克大学 ， 宾夕法尼亚大学 ， 普林斯顿大学 ， 密歇根大学 ， 北京大学和巴黎 高等 商学院 。 Coursera还开始与IBM ， Google和PwC等公司合作，这些公司正在Coursera的平台上启动在线课程。

您可以免费获得Coursera证书吗？ (Can you get a Coursera Certificate for Free?)

Certificates were free in Coursera’s early days. Unfortunately, you can’t get a free certificate for completing Coursera courses now. MOOC providers across the board have stopped offering free certificates for completing their online courses.

证书在Coursera的早期是免费的。 遗憾的是，您现在无法获得免费的Coursera课程证书。 各个MOOC提供商都已停止 提供免费证书来完成其在线课程。

Coursera仍然免费吗？ (Is Coursera Still Free?)

Yes and no. There are definitely a few courses on courses on Coursera that are paid only. Examples of these would be Writing Skills for Engineering Leaders or Google’s Computing, Storage and Security with Google Cloud Platform. At this point, I am not sure how many of these kinds of courses are out there.

是的，没有。 在Coursera上的课程中肯定有几门课程是付费的。 例如， 面向工程负责人的写作技巧或具有Google Cloud Platform的Google的计算，存储和安全性 。 在这一点上，我不确定其中有多少种此类课程。

At the time of writing this article, a vast majority of the courses have some element of “free” — mostly the videos are free to watch, but you need to pay if you want access to graded assignments and certificates.

在撰写本文时，绝大多数课程都具有“免费”的元素-大多数视频是免费观看的，但是如果您想获得分级的作业和证书，则需要付费。

If you search for free courses on Coursera’s website, you will see a sticky note at the top of the search results basically saying what I mentioned. However, Coursera still has a few courses for which even the graded assignments are completely free.

如果您在Coursera的网站上搜索免费课程 ，您将在搜索结果的顶部看到一个便笺，基本上说了我提到的内容。 但是，Coursera仍有一些课程，即使是评分作业也完全免费。

记得审核 (Remember to Audit)

Coursera calls having access to the free portions of a course “auditing the course.” I first came across this concept of auditing when I went to Georgia Tech, where I got my Masters in Computer Science. I got my undergrad degree in India and we didn’t have the concept of auditing there.

Coursera称有权访问课程的免费部分是“审核课程”。 当我去佐治亚理工学院时，我首先遇到了审计的概念，在那里我获得了计算机科学硕士学位。 我在印度获得了本科学位，而我们在印度没有审计的概念。

Here is a quick definition from a university’s FAQ

这是大学常见问题解答中的快速定义

Auditing a course allows a student to take a class without the benefit of a grade or credit for a course.

对课程进行审核可使学生在没有成绩或学分的情况下上课 。

So when you are trying to enroll in Coursera courses for free, look for the word audit. We will explain below — with screenshots — how to sign up for Coursera’s audit mode, but Coursera keeps tweaking their UI or testing different iterations so what’s on your screen on Coursera’s website may be different to what’s presented below.

因此，当您尝试免费注册Coursera课程时，请寻找audit一词。 我们将在下面(带屏幕截图)说明如何注册Coursera的审核模式，但是Coursera会不断调整其UI或测试不同的迭代，因此Coursera网站上屏幕上的内容可能与以下内容有所不同。

如何免费注册Coursera课程？ (How to Enroll in Coursera Courses for Free?)

查找课程页面- 您只能通过各个课程页面免费注册 (Find the Course Page — You can only sign up for free via individual course pages)

Coursera has two main products: online courses and Specializations.

Coursera有两个主要产品：在线课程和专业化课程。

Specializations basically consist of a sequence of online courses designed to enable you to master a particular topic. Some Specializations have a capstone project as the last course in the sequence. Not all courses are part of Specializations, but a majority of courses that are newly launched are part of a Specialization.

专业基本上包括一系列旨在帮助您掌握特定主题的在线课程。 某些专业课程的最后一个课程是完成项目。 并非所有课程都是专业化课程的一部分，但是大部分新开设的课程都是专业化课程的一部分。

Some of the older courses that were around twelve weeks long have been converted into Specialization format, with the original course split into multiple courses.

一些大约十二周长的较旧的课程已转换为专业化格式，原始课程分为多个课程。

As you browse/search courses on Coursera, you will notice that Specializations and courses are mixed together in results. For Specializations, you will see the number of courses in a given Specialization below its name. You will also notice that Specializations are listed higher in the rankings than regular courses.

当您在Coursera上浏览/搜索课程时，您会注意到专业化课程和课程在结果中混合在一起。 对于专业化，您将在其名称下方看到给定专业化中的课程数量。 您还将注意到，专业化课程的排名高于常规课程。

Specializations pages do not allow you to sign up for their individual courses. If you click on the “enroll” button, you will only be given an option to pay for the Specialization.

专业页面不允许您注册他们的个人课程。 如果单击“注册”按钮，则只能选择支付专业化费用。

To sign up for free, you need to find the individual course pages. Unfortunately, even though it lists the courses in the Specialization, the Specialization page doesn’t link to the individual courses.

要免费注册，您需要找到各个课程页面。 不幸的是，即使它在“专业化”中列出了课程，“专业化”页面也没有链接到各个课程。

If you scroll down a bit you will see a list of courses that are part of the Specialization. To visit the course’s page, copy the course name and paste it in the search bar on Coursera.

如果向下滚动，您将看到属于专业化课程的列表。 要访问课程页面，请复制课程名称并将其粘贴到Coursera的搜索栏中。

Better yet, you could search for the course on Class Central — https://www.class-central.com/search. We will also show you results of similar courses that are not on Coursera.

更好的是，您可以在Class Central上搜索该课程— https://www.class-central.com/search 。 我们还将向您显示不在Coursera上的类似课程的结果。

在课程页面上注册 (Enroll on the Course Page)

At this point, I am assuming you are on the Coursera course page of the course you are interested in, and that you are signed in to Coursera.

至此，我假设您正在您感兴趣的课程的Coursera课程页面上，并且您已登录Coursera。

Coursera has two different monetization models for users to purchase the non-free portions of the course.

Coursera有两种不同的获利模型，供用户购买课程的非免费部分。

The first is a straightforward model: buying certificates for individual courses. In this case, once you click on “enroll” you will see two options, one of which (“Full Course, No Certificate”) allows you to sign up for free (as shown below).

首先是一个简单的模型：购买单个课程的证书。 在这种情况下，单击“注册”后，您将看到两个选项，其中一个选项(“完整课程，无证书”)使您可以免费注册(如下所示)。

Some courses might not have the “full course” option (i.e. the graded assignments are behind a paywall). In that case, the second option will show as “audit.” Select “audit” and then click on “continue” to sign up for free.

有些课程可能没有“完整课程”选项(即，评分作业位于付费专区后面)。 在这种情况下，第二个选项将显示为“审核”。 选择“审核”，然后单击“继续”以免费注册。

The second monetization method is a monthly subscription-based model. By paying a monthly subscription fee (starting from $39/month), you get access to premium features for all the courses that are part of the Specalization. Your access ends once you stop paying for the subscription.

第二种获利方法是基于月度订阅的模型。 通过支付每月的订阅费(每月39美元起)，您就可以使用Specalization中所有课程的高级功能。 一旦您停止支付订阅费用，访问便结束。

If you are signed into Coursera and on a course page for a course that is part of a Specialization, you will see the blue “enroll” button surrounded by green background. It will have the text “try for free” above it. Note: this button surrounded by green is only shown to users who are signed in to Coursera. Pricing information is not shown to learners who are not signed in.

如果您登录到Coursera，并且在属于专业化课程的课程页面上，您将看到蓝色的“注册”按钮，周围是绿色背景。 上方会显示“免费试用”字样。 注意：此绿色包围的按钮仅向登录Coursera的用户显示。 定价信息不会显示给未登录的学习者。

Once you click on “enroll,” you should see a popup that prompts you to sign up for a free trial (as shown below). At the bottom right of this popup, you will see a small “audit” link. Click on that link to enroll in the course for free. You will be able to watch videos and participate in discussion forums but won’t have access to graded assignments.

单击“注册”后，您应该会看到一个弹出窗口，提示您注册免费试用版(如下所示)。 在此弹出式窗口的右下角，您将看到一个小的“审核”链接。 单击该链接免费注册课程。 您将能够观看视频并参加讨论论坛，但无法访问已评分的作业。

I hope you found this guide useful. If you found any part of the guide confusing, do let me know and I will update the guide to be clearer. Also, do comment if you find a Coursera course that doesn’t fit the patterns described above.

希望本指南对您有所帮助。 如果您发现该指南的任何部分令人困惑，请告诉我，我将更新该指南以使其更加清晰。 另外，如果您发现不符合上述模式的Coursera课程，请发表评论。

翻译自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-sign-up-for-coursera-courses-for-free-98266efaa531/