There are hundreds of online educational platforms. Some are tiny, servicing small niches, and others try to educate pretty much everybody under the sun. Some are free, while others charge you so you can get a certificate you can show to potential employers, hopefully scoring you a job. Great Courses and Coursera are the biggest of all these platforms. They cover a ton of different subjects, and the quality of education is unrivaled. But, which one is better? Let’s pit Great Courses vs Coursera and find out!
A Note On Great Courses
Before we dive properly into the Great Courses vs Coursera comparison, we want to point out that the Great Courses platform can be a touch confusing. This is because technically Great Courses is two distinct platforms.
Great Courses is the ‘main’ platform, or at least it used to be. Great Courses allows you to buy individual courses, either digitally or on DVD.
Wondrium is the main platform they push now. It used to be called ‘Great Courses Plus’. Wondrium offers the same courses as the main Great Courses website, but on a subscription basis.
For the purposes of this comparison, it doesn’t really matter which option you choose. Well, at least outside of pricing. However, we do urge you to sign up for Wondrium instead of buying individual courses on Great Courses. It’s the same thing, just a bit cheaper. Chances are that Great Courses will be phased out eventually anyway.
Great Courses vs Coursera: A Comparison Chart
Let’s start with a quick comparison chart although, as you may well imagine, this isn’t going to tell the full story. Make sure you read the entirety of our Great Courses vs Coursera comparison to get a better idea of what each brings to the table.
| Feature | Great Courses / Wondrium | Coursera |
| Price | $30+ per individual course, $20 a month for subscription service. | Some free courses, most courses available for $59 per month, and degree courses are several thousand dollars. |
| Course Types | Mostly documentary-style learning. | Documentaries, courses, and degrees. |
| Courses | More general overview courses. Ideal for those interested in in-depth documentary format courses. | Most courses are very ‘practical’ based since the goal is a qualification at the end. |
| The Education | Qualified instructors, but not always the biggest experts. | Coursera mostly uses university/college instructors for their courses, although not always the most appealing to watch. |
| Mobile Learning | Yes, including compatibility with Roku TV | Yes. |
| Languages | 1 | 15+ |
The Price
There is a massive difference in price between the two.
Wondrium will set you back $20 per month. If you want to buy the individual courses from The Great Courses, then they start at $30 each, and a little bit more if you want to buy them on DVD.
With Coursera, there are some free courses. However, most are under their Coursera Plus membership which starts at $59 per month. If you want a degree course, then you are looking at a minimum of several thousand dollars.
Of course, some would argue that Coursera is able to justify the increased price, and you will see why that is the case as we discuss it a bit more.
The Courses
To be honest, there is quite an overlap between the subject matters that Great Courses and Coursera cover. The difference is more the depth of the courses. So, we aren’t going to go into too much depth on the subjects covered, but more about the differences in how the courses are delivered.
The Great Courses has always been more about taking a general overview of a subject. They favor a documentary style where you have a lecturer telling you about the subject, often with an incredibly visual approach to things. Think about the average documentary you would see on TV, and The Great Courses is pretty much that cranked up to 11.
The problem with The Great Courses’ approach is that, at the end of the day, their courses are nothing more than glorified documentaries. Fantastic if you like that sort of thing, but perhaps not if you want something that is going to have real, practical value. Still, they are great for getting a bit more knowledgeable on certain subjects e.g. we have seen some great courses on painting, history, etc.
Coursera, on the other hand, is structured much closer to the type of education that you would get at school/college. It is about teaching practical skills. In fact, pretty much every course that you complete will have at least one practical element that needs to be completed e.g. an essay or a test. The overall goal is to get you to the same level that somebody educated in person would be getting to. This makes you a much better prospect in the job market.
So, Coursera is great if you want something useful that can enhance career prospects, while The Great Courses is useful if you want to expand your horizons a little.
The Qualifications
This is where you will see a major difference. In fact, it is this area that is probably going to have the most sway over which option is the best one for you.
The Great Courses
With The Great Courses, you don’t really get much in the way of qualifications. You get the satisfaction that you have finished watching one of their videos, and in some cases a quick quiz, but you don’t have anything that you can show potential employers. If you headed to an employer and said that you watched a Great Courses video on ‘The History of the Banjo’ then they probably won’t care. Same as they wouldn’t care if you watched something on the History Channel.
As we have stated a few times on this page; completing something with The Great Courses is for your satisfaction, and not the satisfaction of others.
Coursera
Every course on Coursera will result in you getting a certificate. Well, unless you sign up for one of the free courses, then you will have to pay for the certificate ($49, normally). These certificates are often issued in the names of major educational establishments e.g. top global universities. They are highly respected by employees, and many people (especially those in the IT field) have used these courses to help gain positions.
If you get a degree from Coursera, then it is no different from getting a degree anywhere else. Well, apart from the fact that it is mostly online (some courses do require at least one in-person meeting, although these are rare).
So, Coursera, unlike The Great Courses, is about furthering your opportunities when it comes to your career. Everything that you learn at Coursera will have real-world, practical implications.
The Education
There are some major differences in terms of education too. We have talked a little bit about how The Great Courses favors a documentary style, while Coursera is more focused on education. However, the differences extend beyond this.
The Great Courses
The Great Courses bills itself as ‘entertaining education’. If you watch one of their videos, then most of them are about stunning graphics, awesome camera cuts, etc.
While everybody that presents their courses does have the qualifications to teach the courses, it is clear that The Great Courses has opted for people that are going to look great on camera, or at least interesting to watch. Even the subjects where you wouldn’t expect them to be thrilling have a great presentation. For example, we watched a video on The Great Courses on Geneology. The camera cuts would put James Cameron to shame.
Since they partner regularly with the likes of National Geographic, think about NatGeo’s approach to documentaries, and you pretty much just have an idea about what The Great Courses has. Snappy education.
As a note here, most of The Great Courses ‘documentaries’ come with a PDF that you can read through, but it is mostly a reiteration of what you find in their videos.
Coursera
Coursera courses are designed to be purely educational. None of that entertaining malarky. Many of these courses are delivered by some of the top universities in the world, and their education is very lecture/seminar focused. Most of the time, you have somebody sitting behind a desk, perhaps giving you a couple of graphics but nothing too amazing.
Remember, the whole focus of Coursera is to teach you information that you can use in a real-world, practical situation. It doesn’t have the be exciting, it has to be informational.
This is why while Coursera courses may not always be the most exciting thing in the world to watch, we don’t think there is a single company that even comes close to delivering the sort of education that Coursera offers.
On top of this, Coursera also offers a wealth of ways to check your knowledge and progress e.g. tests, peer reviews, and progress trackers. For most courses, The Great Courses doesn’t offer that.
The Languages
The Great Courses lessons are only available in English, while Coursera will mostly be available in English audio, but most of their courses are subtitled. The subtitles can vary, but there will normally be French, Chinese, Spanish, and Russian (at the minimum). Courses are available in at least 15 different languages at Coursera.
Great Courses vs Coursera: Which One Is Right For You?
If you just want to broaden your horizons and learn a few useful things, then The Great Courses will be best for you, although we recommend that you sign up for a Wondrium subscription instead, you will save a ton of money like that.
If you are about furthering your career or learning real practical skills that could benefit your business, then Coursera is the best route to go down.
References
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/
https://www.coursera.org/
https://www.bitdegree.org/online-learning-platforms/coursera-vs-the-great-courses-plus
