By Betty Vandenbosch, Chief Content Officer, Coursera
As 2022 comes to a close, let’s take a moment to reflect on which courses and skills were most popular over the last year. Our more than 100 million registered learners voted with their enrollments to determine the most popular courses overall and most popular courses launched this year on Coursera.
Interested in diving deeper into 2022’s top courses and skills?
Check out a live conversation on January 17, 2023 with all-star instructors and industry experts Andrew Ng, Barbara Oakley, and Charles “Dr. Chuck” Severance moderated by Shravan Goli, Coursera’s Chief Operating Officer. Together, they’ll discuss this year’s learning trends and what they foresee looking ahead to 2023.
Career-focused content dominated the list
The top courses overall largely tie to job-relevant skills, namely in business, tech, and data science. Foundational courses from Google’s certificates in data analytics, project management, UX design, and IT support all made the list, as did Michigan’s Programming for Everybody. With demand for digital roles continuing to climb, learners clearly want to develop the right skills to go after the best job opportunities.
Learners also pursued personal development. The Science of Well-Being – a perennial favorite – remained one of the most popular courses globally, ranking #1 among learners in France, Germany, and the UK. Primeros Auxilios Psicológicos (Psychological First Aid), a Spanish-language course taught by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, was popular in Latin America.
Content that touched both personal and professional goals was in demand globally, including Learning How to Learn and Financial Markets. Language learning was also hot, with English for Career Development on the global top ten list, First Step Korean sought-after in Mexico and Colombia, Write Professional Emails in English trending in the UAE, and Intermediate French (B1-B2) ranking #3 among learners in France.
Learners flocked to industry educators
Among the top ten courses launched in 2022, the majority were part of entry-level Professional Certificates, including Google’s certificates in digital marketing and e-commerce and data analytics (which was launched in Spanish this year), as well as Meta’s front-end and back-end developer certificates.
Additionally, all three courses from DeepLearning.AI and Stanford’s new Machine Learning Specialization made the list. The Specialization, featuring instruction from ML and AI experts including Andrew Ng, is a revamped version of the original Machine Learning course launched on Coursera roughly a decade ago.
We are thankful to our global partners for bringing this top-quality learning content to the world via Coursera. In 2022, we added 20+ new partners, among them Georgetown University, Accenture, and SAP, as well as many leading universities and companies in India, including International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, BITS Pilani, Tally, and PwC India. Together, with our outstanding university and industry partners, we are committed to providing global learners with the content and tools they need to reach their personal and professional goals.
Want to kick start your learning in 2023? Check out Coursera Plus, an all-inclusive monthly and annual subscription with unlimited access to thousands of courses, projects, and certificates.
Most popular content calculated based on enrollments between January 1, 2022 and November 18, 2022. Includes content that is available to consumers on Coursera as of November 18, 2022.
