37% of Coursera’s 6400 Courses Have Peer Reviews: Here Are the Best

37% of Coursera’s 6400 Courses Have Peer Reviews

An analysis by Class Central has established that, currently, 2423 of Coursera’s 6476 active courses (or 37%) include peer-reviewed assessments — that is, assessments manually scored by other learners.

Online education tends to rely on automation when possible. When it comes to course assessments, this typically translates into courses using (or overusing) multiple-choice questions, since these can easily be autograded.

But multiple-choice questions aren’t always ideal, in particular in disciplines inherently subjective or open-ended. An equation might have one solution. But when it comes to, say, creative writing, there usually isn’t a single right “answer”.

Some learners might prefer the human touch of peer reviews. So we’ve compiled a list of the best Coursera courses that include peer reviews. We’ve broken the list down into subjects. Click on a subject to skip to the corresponding courses:

Peer Reviews: Strengths & Weaknesses

Real peer review: 2 learners gave me 4 points; 1 gave me 2.

Peer reviews are a type of assignment used in MOOCs — though prior to this analysis, we wouldn’t have guessed that more than a third of Coursera’s courses used them.

Peer reviews on Coursera work as follows:

1. You complete an assignment, typically involving open-ended questions that you address by writing a few paragraphs of text. You submit it, but you don’t get a score just yet.
2. You score other learners’ assignments, according to a specific rubric, giving more or fewer points depending on how well the assignment addressed each rubric item. In addition, you may write comments.
3. You get your assignment score back, but only after (1) you’ve scored enough assignments, and (2) your assignment has been scored by enough learners.

Unfortunately, precisely because they introduce a human factor, peer-reviewed assessments come with limitations. Humans can be cunning. Our colleague @pat has written an article on the issues of peer reviews, which include cheating, delays, and inconsistencies.

That said, in our experience, many learners tackle these assignments earnestly, providing fair scores and useful feedback that can help one gain a better understanding of the course topic.

So if you’re looking for a good online course with peer-reviewed assessments, you can find our selection below.

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Personal Development Online Courses

Programming Online Courses

Business Online Courses

• Presentation skills: Designing Presentation Slides from Tomsk State University ★★★★★(841)
• Marketing in a Digital World from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ★★★★★(274)
• FinTech Foundations and Overview from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ★★★★★(143)
• Preparing to Manage Human Resources from University of Minnesota ★★★★★(120)
• Accounting, Business and Society: The Multi-faceted Role of Accounting from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ★★★★★(80)
• FinTech Risk Management from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ★★★★★(67)
• FinTech Security and Regulation (RegTech) from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ★★★★★(66)
• Financial Markets from Yale University ★★★★☆(36)
• Becoming a changemaker: Introduction to Social Innovation from University of Cape Town ★★★★★(36)
• Digital Marketing Analytics in Theory from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ★★★★☆(35)

Health & Medicine Online Courses

Humanities Online Courses

• A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment from Indian School of Business ★★★★★(504)
• Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics from Leiden University ★★★★★(81)
• Philosophy, Science and Religion: Religion and Science from University of Edinburgh ★★★★☆(53)
• English for Career Development from University of Pennsylvania ★★★★★(24)
• Philosophy, Science and Religion: Philosophy and Religion from University of Edinburgh ★★★★☆(23)
• The French Revolution from University of Melbourne ★★★★★(23)
• The Modern and the Postmodern (Part 1) from Wesleyan University ★★★★★(21)
• Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop from California Institute of the Arts ★★★★☆(19)
• Getting Started with Essay Writing from University of California, Irvine ★★★★☆(16)
• Magic in the Middle Ages from University of Barcelona ★★★★☆(16)

Data Science Online Courses

• Finding Hidden Messages in DNA (Bioinformatics I) from University of California, San Diego ★★★★★(17)
• Developing Data Products from Johns Hopkins University ★★★★☆(18)
• Reproducible Research from Johns Hopkins University ★★★★☆(27)
• R Programming from Johns Hopkins University
• The Data Scientist’s Toolbox from Johns Hopkins University
• Getting and Cleaning Data from Johns Hopkins University
• Introduction to Big Data from University of California, San Diego
• Regression Models from Johns Hopkins University
• Statistical Inference from Johns Hopkins University
• Data Visualization from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Social Sciences Online Courses

• Protecting Business Innovations via Patent from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ★★★★★(146)
• Social Psychology from Wesleyan University ★★★★★(82)
• Protecting Business Innovations via Copyright from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ★★★★★(60)
• Greening the Economy: Sustainable Cities from Lund University ★★★★★(53)
• EU policy and implementation: making Europe work! from Leiden University ★★★★★(51)
• Protecting Business Innovations via Trademark from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ★★★★★(43)
• Chinese Politics Part 1 – China and Political Science from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ★★★★★(27)
• Rethinking International Tax Law from Leiden University ★★★★★(27)
• The Science of Well-Being from Yale University ★★★★★(26)
• Introduction to Psychology from University of Toronto ★★★★★(26)

Computer Science Online Courses

• Computational Social Science Methods from University of California, Davis ★★★★★(89)
• Computer Simulations from University of California, Davis ★★★★★(34)
• Fundamentals of Reinforcement Learning from University of Alberta ★★★★★(24)
• Computational Social Science Capstone Project from University of California, Davis ★★★★★(23)
• Algorithmic Thinking (Part 1) from Rice University ★★★★☆(15)
• Introduction to the Internet of Things and Embedded Systems from University of California, Irvine ★★★★☆(12)
• Algorithmic Thinking (Part 2) from Rice University ★★★★☆(9)
• Practical Machine Learning from Johns Hopkins University
• Cybersecurity and Its Ten Domains from University System of Georgia
• The Arduino Platform and C Programming from University of California, Irvine

Art & Design Online Courses

• Gamification from University of Pennsylvania ★★★★★(58)
• Songwriting: Writing the Lyrics from Berklee College of Music ★★★★★(25)
• Fundamentals of Music Theory from University of Edinburgh ★★★★☆(23)
• Guitar for Beginners from Berklee College of Music ★★★★★(21)
• Fundamentals of Graphic Design from California Institute of the Arts ★★★★☆(20)
• Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society from University of Pennsylvania ★★★★☆(18)
• The 3D Printing Revolution from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ★★★★★(18)
• Developing Your Musicianship from Berklee College of Music ★★★★★(16)
• Roman Architecture from Yale University ★★★★☆(13)
• Introduction to Game Design from California Institute of the Arts ★★★★☆(13)

Mathematics Online Courses

Science Online Courses

Education & Teaching Online Courses

• Teaching Character and Creating Positive Classrooms from Relay Graduate School of Education ★★★★★(22)
• American Education Reform: History, Policy, Practice from University of Pennsylvania ★★★★★(9)
• Learning to Teach Online from University of New South Wales ★★★★☆(8)
• Disability Inclusion in Education: Building Systems of Support from University of Cape Town ★★★★★(7)
• Get Organized: How to be a Together Teacher from Relay Graduate School of Education ★★★★☆(6)
• What future for education? from University of London International Programmes ★★★★★(5)
• Teach English Now! Second Language Listening, Speaking, and Pronunciation from Arizona State University ★★★★★(5)
• Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Learners and Learning from Commonwealth Education Trust ★★★★☆(5)
• ICT in Primary Education: Transforming children’s learning across the curriculum from University of London International Programmes ★★★★★(4)
• Blended Learning: Personalizing Education for Students from New Teacher Center ★★★★☆(4)

Engineering Online Courses

• Maps and the Geospatial Revolution from Pennsylvania State University ★★★★★(11)
• Our Energy Future from University of California, San Diego ★★★★★(7)
• Introduction to Systems Engineering from University of New South Wales ★★★★★(5)
• BIM Fundamentals for Engineers from National Taiwan University ★★★★☆(3)
• Imagery, Automation, and Applications from University of California, Davis ★★★★★(2)
• GIS Data Formats, Design and Quality from University of California, Davis ★★★★★(2)
• Geodesign: Change Your World from Pennsylvania State University ★★★★☆(2)
• Fundamentals of GIS from University of California, Davis
• Robótica from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
• Embedded Hardware and Operating Systems from EIT Digital