Overview #
Coursera Career Academy is a collection of asynchronous online courses from industry leaders like Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and Meta. Topics include computer science, business, IT security, social media production, project management, and more. Learners can build job-relevant skills of value in the job market and earn microcredentials that can enhance the student’s resume and LinkedIn profile. Additionally, completion of courses in Career Academy can demonstrate the ability to learn new skills independently.
One of the main goals of Career Academy at UMW is to “provide opportunities for students to gain credentials for in-demand proficiencies (e.g. social media and marketing analytics, Microsoft)” which is an action step of the 2022-2027 Strategic Vision.
Things To Know #
UMW students, faculty, and staff have unlimited access to the full Career Academy catalog and can use it independently for professional or personal development. Learners can search for and enroll in full courses, or smaller individual modules in a course without committing to a full course. Progress is saved in the Career Academy platform, so learners can return later to complete a course over time to earn a microcredential if desired.
One important distinction is that UMW has purchased a license for Career Academy only. UMW does not have a license for Coursera for Campus which is a broader catalog of asynchronous online courses from other universities and providers, some of which may have an enrollment cost.
Getting Started #
To start using Career Academy you will first need to set up an account. Navigating to https://coursera.umw.edu will take you to a webpage that will help you with this. Follow the account setup instructions carefully to be sure you are properly enrolled using UMW’s license for free access. The website also has handy links to other information including logging in after your account is set up, account support, and an FAQ page.
Once you have created your account, you should always log in using the “Log in with University of Mary Washington” button, not any of the other login options. The Career Academy website mentioned above has a handy link to log in.
When you are logged into UMW’s Career Academy, it looks like this:
Getting Support #
There are several ways to get support depending on what kind of help you need:
- Anyone having issues setting up their Career Academy account should contact the UMW IT Help Desk.
- For learners that have questions on how to use the Career Academy site, Coursera has created these support pages.
- Faculty that have questions or would like a consultation on how to use Career Academy in your courses should contact Digital Learning Support using our webform or by emailing dls@umw.edu.
Career Academy Courses #
Searching Career Academy #
There are many different courses that are part of Career Academy, and more are being added. This spreadsheet from Coursera gives some details that you might find helpful in understanding what is included.
Also, log in to UMW’s Career Academy site and try using the Search bar at the top of the page.
Using Career Academy in Courses #
Coursera Career Academy has a set approach in the way courses are assigned deadlines for completion and how those courses are graded. This set approach can affect how a faculty member may want to use these resources in courses. This section attempts to outline these considerations.
Important Considerations and Caveats #
- Career Academy courses are created by commercial companies like IBM, Adobe, Meta, and Google, not other educational institutions. While they can be used in your courses, sometimes these courses have a goal of development of professionals in the workplace as opposed to helping students build skills. Also, some of the courses push users to tools created by that company (like Adobe) even if other tools may be more capable or more available to students.
- The Coursera Career Academy platform is aimed at professionals, so the way they think about grades and deadlines is different that what you may expect. Deadlines are set to help students continue to make progress in the asynchronus format, so instead of simply setting hard deadlines, they are flexible in the platform. A student can always adjust deadlines in the platform independently of any deadline you might set using the Canvas LTI (more on that below).
- Coursera grades students on a 100 points for each course, and a “passing” grade is 80%. The system also allows unlimited attempts to complete a module, but it may limit the number of attempts that can be made each day. In the end, the goal for the platform is completion of modules at 80% or better to keep learners moving through the course using as many attempts as the student needs.
Ways to Incorporate Career Academy in Courses #
- Select a single module or a whole course as an additional resource for students who may need more background on a particular topic. This can be as simple as sending the students the link to the module in Career Academy.
- Select single modules, multiple modules, or entire courses to assign to students for completion. This can be done in Canvas to pass grades back as students complete the work.
- Recommend modules as additional resources that students can use to gain deeper understanding on topics you feel are relevant to your course or discipline.
Using the Canvas LTI for Career Academy #
Coursera Career Academy has an integration with Canvas to allow faculty to assign course modules, or full courses, as part of the work of the course. This secion will show you how to create Canvas Assignments with the LTI and present things to consider in how you implement this in a course. If you skipped over the Important Considerations and Caveats above, it might be worth looking at that before continuing.
- Log in to Career Academy and find a module that you want to assign. Make note of the title of that module or modules so you can search for it while setting up the assignment in Canvas
- Log into Canvas and go to the course you want to add a Career Academy module to. Click the “+Assignment” button
- Enter the information for your Assignment
You must set points to 100
- Click the “Find” button to use the Career Academy external tool
- Choose Career Academy from the list
- Click on the “Career Academy for Students, Faculty, & Staff link
- Enter the title of the course you want to use and click “Search”
- Click the name of the course you want to use
- Choose the module from the course you want to use, then click “Submit.” If you want multiple modules from a single course, you need to repeat this entire process for each module.
- Be sure to click the checkbox next to “Load This Tool In A New Tab” and leave Attempts set to “Unlimited.”
- Set a due date for your assignment, but leave the “Available from” and “Until” blank.
- Your assigment will look like this in Canvas. You can add more information to make it clearer to students, or add it to a module.
Other Uses of Career Academy #
Here are some other ways to consider using Career Academy
- For students you advise, Career Academy may be a way to help students to explore different areas of interest
- Courses or microcredentials students earn on their own could be useful ways to add skills relevant to their future career and demonstrate the ability to learn independently
- Suggest Career Academy modules or courses for employees or student assistants you supervise as professional development to build useful skills
- Use Career Academy for your own professional development or to build skills in in areas of personal interest