Learn new skills, soup up old ones Coursera: Learning on the go

Pluralsight helps employees upskill themselves in sync with the changing needs of industry, writes KHALID ANZAR

At a time when there is a lot of concern over global and Indian corporate giants laying off staff citing inefficiency, especially in the technology sector, it becomes imperative for employees to upskill themselves in sync with the changing needs and stay relevant for their employers. This assumes even greater significance today as people in many cases are pitted against machines, which are threatening to take away human jobs.

Pluralsight, an online and app-based platform, has been gaining popularity in the online learning space. The company offers online courses ranging from basic programming tools to advanced machine learning and analytics.

It offers app support to almost all platforms— it is compatible with Macs, iPhones and iPads, Google Android phones and tablets, Microsoft Windows and smart televisions.

I tested the Android version, which I downloaded from the Google Play Store. Once the app is downloaded, it asks for a sign-in. For registration, you need to visit the portal on a computer and sign up.

To check what the app offers, you can skip the sign-in and see the available courses. You can scroll through the list and check the table of contents as well. However, you cannot play the videos or do much without signing in.

The registration is subscriptionbased and is available for individuals and teams. For individuals, the subscription starts from $29 a month and $299 a year. To get a better grip of the app and test all its features, you can also register for a free 10-day trial.

Pluralsight offers a simple darkthemed design with relevant content categories visible at the top. Each category shows new courses at the top and lists popular courses below. For simpler navigation, the app also offers a search bar.

The course list offers a table of contents, description, transcript and a list of Education-focused technology company Coursera, known for specialised online courses and learning tools from top global universities and educational institutions, is making education more mobile and accessible to people. The app is available on the Google Play Store under the name Coursera: Online courses. You can register through a Gmail account, Facebook account or any other e-mail address. The app is easy to use and navigate. There are four main options available – My Courses, Recommended, Featured and Discover. The Recommended window shows recommendations for courses based on the primary goals you have set. The Featured window shows trending courses and the Discover window shows all the available courses filtered under various branches – just as it shows after clicking on ‘browse catalogue’ option on the My Courses window. The app provides multiple courses on the same topic offered by different universities. Therefore, the duration and course material differs and it is up to the learner’s preference to decide the course and university before enrolling. It also states important details like video hours in the course, practice quizzes, required quizzes, peer-review assignments, etc. The outline of the course is also provided to brief what will be covered by the course. The app is one of its kind – at least so far – and offers great educational resources to the new-age learner. The app is swift and can be used to take courses on the go. The company claims that 96 per cent of all the courses can be taken using mobile devices. KHALID ANZAR related courses to choose from. There is an option to download the course for offline access as well.

Pluralsight offers almost everything that other online learning spaces bring, and more. The subscription-based model of Pluralsight versus the course-based subscription model of other platforms is a differentiating factor.

There is no dearth of content and courses and most are available with the option to download for offline access. The platform, however, might have been better for Indian users if the courses were optimised for the Indian workforce. Also, there should have been an option to see the subscription amount in Indian rupees.