What the world learned on Coursera in 2023 and next year’s must-know skills

By Marni Baker Stein, Chief Content Officer, Coursera

2023 — what a monumental year for online learning. Generative AI is already transforming education and careers, and learners worldwide are preparing themselves for the future. I think this will be the year we look back on as a turning point. 

2023 by the numbers:
Data as of September 30, 2023

  • 136 million learners, including 17 million new learners
  • 20 new partners, including London Business School, the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), CVS, Dell, and PepsiCo
  • 1,200+ new courses, projects, Specializations, or certificates
  • 10 new degrees, including programs from Dartmouth, Illinois Tech, IIT Guwahati, and UC Berkeley
  • 34.2 million enrollments, 16% YoY growth 
  • 450,000+ learners enrolled in AI-translated content 

Let’s take a closer look at the top courses in 2023 and the fast-growing skills of 2024.  

The year of generative AI 

We saw a huge interest in learners seeking out genAI content on Coursera this year, with searches growing 4x in 2023 compared to 2022. 

To meet the demand, leading university and industry partners launched 35+ courses or projects on genAI, resulting in a whopping 570,500 enrollments. That means roughly every minute in 2023 someone enrolled in genAI content on Coursera.

Generative AI for Everyone, published by AI pioneer and Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng, became a breakout hit. Within 30 days, 90,000+ learners from 190+ countries enrolled, making it the fastest-growing course of 2023 and the fourth fastest-growing course of all time. Camil C said, “This course acts as a friendly gateway into the expansive realm of Generative AI, providing a robust foundation for those exploring the possibilities and challenges posed by artificial intelligence in our contemporary landscape.”

Here are the other top genAI courses published on Coursera in 2023*. 

  1. Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT (Vanderbilt University) 
  2. Generative AI with Large Language Models (AWS; DeepLearning.AI) 
  3. Introduction to Generative AI (Google Cloud)
  4. Generative AI for Everyone (DeepLearning.AI)
  5. ChatGPT Advanced Data Analysis (Vanderbilt University) 

Learning to break into new careers

This year, learners flocked to courses that were part of entry-level Professional Certificates, which require no background knowledge or college degree and teach the skills needed for entry-level roles. 70% of the top courses were part of these programs, which prepare learners for more than one million open U.S. jobs in fields ranging from project management and user experience to data analytics and cybersecurity. 

The other three courses that topped the list were all-time favorites that teach happiness, English language, and financial literacy. The Science of Well-Being, with 340,000+ enrollments in 2023, has been a top course since its 2018 launch, while this is the seventh year for English for Career Development, which reached 295,000 learners from 190+ countries in 2023 alone. 

  1. Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere (Google) 
  2. Foundations of Project Management (Google)  
  3. NEW! Foundations of Cybersecurity (Google)  
  4. NEW! Foundations of Digital Marketing and E-commerce (Google)  
  5. The Science of Well-Being (Yale University)  
  6. Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions (Google) 
  7. Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design (Google) 
  8. Financial Markets (Yale University) 
  9. English for Career Development (University of Pennsylvania)
  10. Technical Support Fundamentals (Google)  

Fastest growing skills for 2024**

Ready to start fresh in the new year with a new job or perhaps a whole new career? Job searches peak in January, according to Indeed data, so ensure you stand out from the pack by learning the fastest-growing skills for 2024.

To pinpoint these, we analyze all course enrollments in 2023 and 2022, which are tagged with over 900 specific skills in the Coursera Skills Taxonomy, and predict those expected to see continued demand in 2024.

These are reinforced with labor market data. For example, there’s been about a 20x increase in job postings seeking generative AI skills, which were most prevalent in data science, machine learning engineering, and curriculum writing roles, according to Lightcast data.

Many of our fastest-growing skills also align with WEF’s fastest-growing global jobs, including AI and machine learning specialists, business intelligence specialists, information security analysts, and data analysts.

Editor’s Note: Want to view the fastest-growing skills exclusively for enterprise learners—those who are enrolled in a learning program through a business, government, or education institution? Check out The Job Skills of 2024 Report.

  1. ChatGPT
  2. Cybersecurity
  3. HTML/CSS
  4. UX design
  5. Front-end development
  6. Bookkeeping
  7. Data integrity and governance
  8. React Native
  9. Database management
  10. Generative AI modeling and development

Maximize your learning by enrolling in Coursera Plus, which includes unlimited access to 7,000+ courses, projects, and certificates.

*Most popular content calculated based on enrollments between January 1, 2023 and November 30, 2023.

**Fastest-growing skills calculated using enrollment data from consumer and enterprise learners on Coursera between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023 compared to October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022. We pinpoint the skills with the most significant year-on-year increase in enrollment and overall ranking to identify those expected to see continued demand in 2024, which was calculated using a new version of the Coursera Skills Taxonomy and tagging methodology. Some similar granular skills were combined.

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