Coursera Plus: Is the long term dedication worth it?

Coursera is one of the largest MOOC (massive online open course) providers. The service gives learners all around the world access to courses from schools like Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and IBM in a range of topics including public health, computer science, and professional development.

While you can take single courses, Coursera also offers certification programs. One of the more popular ones is the IBM Data Science Professional Certificate.

These courses can either be audited for free (with no certificate of completion), or learners can pay a fee to verify their progress through the course.

Typically, individual courses cost anywhere from $29 to $99 and certificates are based on a subscription model of $39 to $79 a month for however long it takes to complete all the courses in the certificate.

Recently, though, Coursera has offered some users a new option. Coursera Plus is a $499 a year subscription that gives learners access to almost every course on the site, including some certificates. You can see a full list of course providers that are included in the program on their website.