By Christine Wong, Product Manager
When you take a course on Coursera, we want you to have the opportunity to work on challenging, hands-on projects – so that when you finish, you know you’re ready to apply your skills in the real world. But we also know that working up to those big projects takes plenty of smaller-scale practice, especially when you’re learning something brand new.
Today, we’re excited to introduce a feature designed to make it easier for you to practice new skills in computer science and data science courses: in-browser coding. We’ve built our in-browser coding system to support a wide variety of programming languages – reflecting the breadth of computer science content available on Coursera – and to give instructors much more flexibility to integrate active learning and practice alongside in-depth projects.
In-browser coding is simple to use, and allows you to test your knowledge and get feedback in seconds. You’ll see an editor window embedded in a reading or in-video quiz. You’ll type your code in response to a prompt, hit Run, and see your output immediately. There’s nothing to download or set up on your computer, and no other windows or tools to open – everything happens on Coursera. Watch the video below to see how it works:
Courses that use in-browser coding may also include more complex programming assignments, designed to be completed after you’ve worked through the in-browser exercises. This combination allows you to progress smoothly from learning a new a skill, to applying it in a simple exercise, to putting it together with other skills and concepts to demonstrate your in-depth mastery.
In-browser coding will be live in several courses this month:
- Open now: Introduction to Data Analytics for Business from the University of Colorado, Boulder
- Coming October 24th: Introduction to Data Science in Python, from the University of Michigan (also includes Jupyter Notebooks integration)
- Coming in October: Big Data Analysis with Scala and Spark, from EPFL
More instructors will be integrating in-browser exercises in new and existing courses over the next few months.
Computer science and data science are some of the most popular topics on Coursera, and we’re constantly working to develop new features that improve the way programming is taught online. We hope in-browser coding makes your learning experience more efficient, effective, and fun – and if you’ve considered taking a programming course, but haven’t enrolled yet, we hope you’ll explore the courses above and give in-browser coding a try!
You can find more information about in-browser coding and programming assignments in our Learner Help Center.