One of the most difficult parts of learning new creative skills is finding the time to study and practice. If you're already working, you might not like the luxury of being able to take a sabbatical to attend full-time study, and even finding a slot to commit to evening classes can be difficult.
Happily, online creative courses can provide a solution these days, and Coursera Plus is one of the most complete and flexible sources. The online learning platform features in our pick of the best apps for learning a new skill, and its subscription programme includes courses in all kinds of creative fields, from graphic design to the cutting-edge creation of 3D worlds in Unreal Engine.
The best Coursera Plus courses for creatives
Coursera Plus has over 10,000 courses of different lengths, and you can study anywhere at any time. But with so much to choose from, where should you start? Well, I've been browsing, and these are the Coursera Plus courses that I would choose today and why.
Graphic Design Specialization by Calarts
I work with graphic designers, and I read and write about graphic design, but a designer I am not and I often feel I should have some formal training. Like many creative disciplines, graphic design is seeing a lot of uncertainty at the moment due to AI, but I think the core skills will remain as relevant as ever even if technology is changing.
Essentially graphic design is about visual communication, and that includes skills that apply to other disciplines, from branding to UI and motion graphics. That makes a grounding in the subject desirable even if you're not looking to work in the field directly.
Calarts' Graphic Design Specialization on Coursera is a four-course sequence covering the fundamentals of graphic design, typography and image making, including classes on design history, which I think is important for seeing how the purpose and approaches to design have evolved.
The course is estimated to take four weeks assuming you do 10 hours a week.
Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design by Google
UX design is everywhere and always has been. Even if awareness of the field has really only come to the fore in recent years in association with digital experiences, UX applies to every product and service. That means many people are doing UX design without knowing it and really could benefit from thinking more like a UX designer.
Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design is the first of a series of seven courses from Google that focuses on the interactions that people have with websites, mobile apps and physical objects. It looks at crucial aspect like empathising with users, defining pain points, coming up with ideas for design solutions and creating wireframes, prototypes, and mockups for testing.
The course is taught by working UX designers and researchers at Google and includes hands-on activities, so it sounds like it should provide a solid foundation in a growing field of design that should always be relevant.
It's suggested that the initial course will take just one week, or ten hours. There are further courses that follow on.
Modern and Contemporary Art and Design Specialization by MoMA
Wouldn't everyone love to feel more knowledgeable when talking about art? I write about art for living and still often find myself lost for an opinion. This series of four courses from MoMA could be just the answer. It tackles contemporary art in a broad sense, including photography and fashion as design and includes behind-the-scenes glimpses of work at the museum and in artists' studios.
The aim is to develop a deeper understanding of artists’ and designers’ processes, develop critical thinking and looking skills to understand how artists and designers respond to the social and cultural issues and gain confidence in looking at and talking about modern and contemporary art and design.
Coursera suggests 4 weeks to complete the courses at 10 hours a week. If you want to learn to do art as well as talk about it, see our pick of the best online art classes.
The Art of Visual Storytelling Specialization by University of Boulder Colorado
Video editing has become a skill needed not just by video editors but by almost anyone who wants to promote their work or product, particularly since the growth of social media. I started my career as a newspaper journalist way back in the early 2000s, and immediately had a camera thrown at me and was suddenly expected to edit videos for a website with no training.
Obviously, they were awful. If only I'd had access to this course on Coursera Plus. It's a hand-on hands-on specialization, so rather than just study concepts, you actually have to make a video, from pre-production to shooting and post-production. It covers storyboarding, technical camera functions and the basics of non-linear editing programs like Adobe Premiere Pro.
Coursera estimates two months to complete at 10 hours a week.
Game Design Professional Certificate by Epic Games
I'm getting out of my depth now, but, hey, if I have the subscription, I'm going to take advantage of it! I've written so much about Unreal Engine over the past couple of years I feel I should really have a better knowledge of how it works.
Game design is an exciting and rapidly evolving creative field that stretches beyond console and PC titles to mobile games and brand XR experiences. Epic Games' Unreal Engine is at the cutting edge of video game design but also VFX, virtual production and the creation of 3D digital twins for branding. Basically, if you're interested in working in the latest in visuals, it's the platform to know about.
This professional certificate focuses on game design and includes a dedicated module on Unreal Engine fundamentals. You'll also look at level design, blueprint scripting, world-building, visual and audio development, and UX and UI design. And you'll get to practise skills in Unreal Engine through hands-on assessments, graded and ungraded quizzes, and a final project.
06. AI Foundations for Everyone Specialization by IBM
This course isn't strictly related to the creative work, and I realise its inclusion may be controversial, but there's no escaping the fact that a knowledge of how to work with AI is increasing being demanded by employers in creative industries. We recently spoke to several design and branding agencies who told us about the AI skills necessary for jobs in design now.
This course from IBM covers general concepts, prompt engineering and how AI is being used in different industries. It includes hands-on interactions with AI environments and applications, and you'll build and deploy an AI enabled chatbot on a website without having to learn any code (if you do want to code, see our picks of the best online coding courses).
What is Coursera?
Coursera is an online learning platform that offers online courses that are available to anyone, anywhere, including degrees from leading universities. It was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller and it works with universities and other organisation to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a wide variety of subjects.
Is Coursera free?
Many courses on Coursera offer free access via the option to 'audit' the course. This provides free access to course content like lectures but not to graded assignments or certificates. You will usually need to pay if you want a certificate of completion.
What is Coursera Plus?
Coursera Plus is a subscription service that gives you unlimited access to over 10,000 courses, specialisations, and professional certificates on the Coursera platform. This access includes materials and other resources that aren't available in the free versions of the courses. Courses cover a wide range of areas, but don't include degrees, MasterTrack Certificates and some professional certificates.
In creative fields, the courses available in Coursera Plus cover everything from broad conceptual beginner introductions to whole areas of visual design to dedicated technical courses on how to uses specific software programs or create particular types of work.
Coursera Plus costs $59/month or $399/year. There's a free seven-day trial, and you can cancel at anytime.
