Using Coursera in Canvas

🔍 What Is Coursera?

Coursera is a leading global online learning platform that offers flexible, high-quality courses from top universities and organizations.

Through A-State’s partnership with Coursera, faculty, staff, and students have access to a wide range of learning opportunities, including courses, professional certificates, and micro-credentials from industry leaders such as Google, Meta, and IBM.

Through the Coursera Career Academy, A-State provides access to hundreds of courses focused on career development and workforce-ready skills. These courses can be incorporated into Canvas to enhance instruction and provide students with opportunities to build practical, real-world knowledge alongside their academic coursework.

Faculty are encouraged to integrate Coursera into their courses to:

🎓 Types of Coursera Content You Can Add

When using Coursera in Canvas, you can assign different types of content:

🔐 How Coursera Access Works

Students must be logged in to Coursera using their A-State account to access licensed content.

📘 Student resources:
➤ Career Academy for Students: Quick Start Guide
➤ Career Academy for Students: Finding a Course

📘 Additional information:
➤ A-State Coursera Overview
➤ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

❓ Why Students Might Be Asked to Pay

Students may encounter a payment prompt if:

How to Fix It

🛠️ Notes and Limitations

🔗 Adding Direct Links (Use with Caution)

Faculty can add direct links to Coursera content in Canvas (Pages, Assignments, Announcements, etc.), but this method has limitations.

When Direct Links Work (and Why They Fail)

Direct links to Coursera will work if:

If either of these conditions is not met, students may be prompted to pay or be unable to access the course.

✅ Recommendation

Use the External Tool for a more reliable and consistent student experience.

✅ Adding Coursera Using External Tool (Recommended)

Coursera content can be added to Canvas using the External Tool integration, which provides several key benefits:

In most cases, this method also handles Coursera authentication automatically when students launch the content in Canvas.

ℹ️ The Coursera External Tool can be added from either Modules or Assignments.

🎯 Modules vs Assignments: What’s the Difference?

Both Modules and Assignments allow you to add Coursera content using the External Tool and track student completion and grades in Canvas (when supported).

The difference is based on how you choose to organize your course:

Coursera content added through Modules will still be configured as a graded activity and report to the Canvas gradebook, except in cases where the selected content (such as videos) does not support grading.

➕ Option 1: Add Through Modules

Steps

1. Open your Canvas course
2. Go to Modules
3. Click + (Add Item)
   

   

4. Select External Tool
5. From the list, select Coursera LTI (Native)

   

6. Choose the Coursera program
   • (e.g., Arkansas State Full Catalogue Program)
     

     

     
     
7. Search for and select a course or content
   

   

   
   
8. Configure settings (if prompted)
   

   

   
   
9. Click Confirm, and then Add Item.

📝 Option 2: Add as an Assignment

Steps

1. Go to Assignments
2. Click + Assignment
   

   

3. Enter assignment details
4. Under Submission Type, select External Tool
   

   

5. Click Find
   

   

6. Select Coursera LTI (Native)
   

   

   
   
7. Choose the Coursera program
   • (e.g., Arkansas State Full Catalogue Program)
     

     

8. Search for and select a course or content
   

   

9. Configure grading settings
   
   
10. Click Confirm and Select
11. Click Save or Save & Publish to create the assignment.

📊 Grading and Grade Passback

Grading behavior depends on the type of Coursera content selected.

✅ Supports Grade Passback

The following content types can return grades to Canvas:

These may be configured to return:

⚠️ Limited Grading Support

💡 Instructional Tip

Use Courses or Guided Projects for structured, graded learning activities.
Use Videos to supplement instruction with shorter content.

✅ Best Practice

Test Coursera content using a real student account whenever possible.

The Canvas Student View feature does not fully support Coursera testing. Because it creates a temporary user without an associated email address, Coursera authentication will fail and may result in an error.

Recommended Testing Methods

📩 Need Help?

For access or licensing issues, requests may be routed to the Coursera administrator.

✅ Related Resources