Coursera uniquely positions in comprehensive online education
1. Coursera // Stanford
Pre-Business Association
Consulting Team
Final Presentation
May 12, 2016
Grace Geng, Economics Class of 2017
Graeme Hewett, Economics Class of 2018
Andrew Jabara, Economics Class of 2018
Sidd Gupta, Economics Class of 2018
Sarah Min, Economics Class of 2019
3. Coursera presents unique strategies in the online education space
Coursera EdX Udacity Udemy
Code
Academy
Comprehensive
courses ✔ ✔ ✔
Professional
learning ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Casual learning ✔ ✔
Partner with
colleges ✔ ✔
Partner with
employers ✔
Subscription ✔ ✔
Free courses ✔ ✔ ✔
Coursera has limited
competition within the
market segment
• Coursera provides a
variety of courses from
top universities
• EdX is the main
competitor, which offers
more free courses and
some university credit
• Many other competitors
focus on computer
science online courses
specifically
Coursera uniquely positions in the comprehensive online education segment with significant
partnership with educational institutions.
5. Customer brand awareness is strong
120mm new
tablet users in
3 years.
89% of Stanford students have heard
about Coursera
23% of non-Stanford participants have heard
about Coursera
-- Out of the 109 Stanford students surveyed
-- Out of the 81 participants surveyed
32% of total participants have taken
at least one course with Coursera
-- Out of the 190 participants surveyed
6. Most popular type of courses and incentives are professional
The most popular types of courses are Engineering and Business. Main incentives are
Professional Certificates.
7. Young users are growing and willing to pay
Coursera is the one of the most popular online education websites. Most young users
are willing to pay. People start to take Coursera courses at an early age.
8. Comment Highlight - What do you like about Coursera
Affiliations with top colleges and access to
professors from those colleges; Huge
volume of participation from colleges and
universities from around the world.
“
”
There are lots of different subjects, and you
have flexibility in terms of scheduling or
learn during your fragmented time.
“
”
9. Comment Highlight - Potential Improvements for Coursera
Some more interactivity would be nice - there's
not much interaction with other people
“ ”
Organization of course info, maybe a "quiz" on
first steps? -- leading you to what your interests
are and what a good first class would be?
“
”
Course completion has been the major problem
and I think having sets of transferable "skill"
badges e.g. debugging, HTML, Writing Proofs
etc. would be helpful.
“
”
End of course qualification that is recognized
outside of Coursera“
”
16. Referral Program
Alumni can share their Coursera experience to get coupons for both themselves and their friends.
Competitors use alumni’s success as their major selling point
• Udacity lists its top alumni and their current job titles on their front page
• EdX and Linux both have extensive sections how on they have changed their users’ careers
Alumni can share their Coursera
experience to get coupons
• Upon finish a course, users can choose to submit
their current job or new job progress in exchange
for coupon for themselves and their friends
• Past users can send their friends invites through a
quick link and receive coupons by number of
invitations sent
• Alumni can share their Coursera’s experience
through their social media and receive free courses
based on the number of likes received
• Alumni database can be used to build online
community or serve as content for social media
marketing
M
17. • Build a Coursera alumni
database, which helps
to create a Coursera
community and gain
recruiters’ attention
• Address the customers’
need for an online
learning community
Online Community
An alumni referral program can associate Coursera courses with professional success, create a strong
online community, and encourage user retention
Alumni Referral - Build online community and alumni retention
• 126/190 participants in
the first survey listed
“Professional
Certificate” as a reason
for purchasing online
courses
• Demonstrate what the
Coursera certificate
can do
Professional Incentives
• Encourage to finish
courses
• Invite past users to take
more courses
• 5% of customer
retention rate typically
increases 25 – 75% of
customer value, due to
their referral behaviors
Alumni Retention
18. Alumni Referral - Share your experience in exchange for coupons
Alumni can share their Coursera experience to get coupons for both themselves and their friends.
Competitors use alumni’s success as their major selling point
• Udacity lists its top alumni and their current job titles on their front page
• EdX and Linux both have extensive sections how on they have changed their users’ careers
Alumni can share their Coursera
experience to get coupons
• Upon finish a course, users can choose to submit
their current job or new job progress in exchange
for coupon for themselves and their friends
• Past users can send their friends invites through a
quick link and receive coupons by number of
invitations sent
• Alumni can share their Coursera’s experience
through their social media and receive free courses
based on the number of likes received
• Alumni database can be used to build online
community or serve as content for social media
marketing
19. Multi-level Referral - Exponential growth and community engagement
Multi-level referral programs can create a network exponentially through users’ personal relationships.
Achieve high growth
• Incentivize users to develop their personal network
in Coursera
• Transform users into sales force
• Increase mentorship among referrals
Increase community engagement
• Create a community of users
• New users are introduced to Coursera through
multiple angles
• The referral program becomes recurring for users
Introduce personal relationships
• Users bring in their personal relationship to
Coursera
• Increase social media posting content
20. Multi-level Referral - Get coupons when your friends refer friends
Users can refer their friends to get coupons for themselves, their friends, and middle connections.
Multi-level referral has been the strongest growth point for some companies
• NU Skin, a cosmetic company grew its China presence by 320% in the past 2 years through a multi-level referral
program
• Other companies such as Amway and Avon all experience significant revenue growth through the programs
Users get coupons when their friends
bring in new users
• Users have their friends enter a unique code when
creating account
• When the new user makes a purchase, all users
signed up in the chain receive a coupon
• A chain can go up to 6 levels
Potential risks
• Coupon must incentivize users to buy courses
without giving away too much
• Dilute the brand
22. • More users means more
data to analyze. This
gives Coursera the
necessary information to
help bring new courses
and material.
• See what people like
and don’t like. Need
more computer science,
you can do that.
Course Analytics
A ‘freemium’ model can allow Coursera to increase its user base, develop courses based on what
people learn, and brings stability to the business.
Sampling summarize
• Encourages new users
to learn new material
and expand their
knowledge base
• Smaller barrier of entry
for people. Allows them
to dive into the service
without having to
sacrifice anything
Larger User Base
• Certain number of paid
and non-paid users
• This helps better predict
what revenues will be in
the future, based on
number of paid users
• Stability is important.
Stable Cash Flows
M
23. • More users means more
data to analyze. This
gives Coursera the
necessary information to
help bring new courses
and material.
• See what people like
and don’t like. Need
more computer science,
you can do that.
Course Analytics
A ‘freemium’ model can allow Coursera to increase its user base, develop courses based on what
people learn, and brings stability to the business.
Freemium - Encourages users to explore and try new courses
• Encourages new users
to learn new material
and expand their
knowledge base
• Smaller barrier of entry
for people. Allows them
to dive into the service
without having to
sacrifice anything
Larger User Base
• Certain number of paid
and non-paid users
• This helps better predict
what revenues will be in
the future, based on
number of paid users
• Stability is important.
Stable Cash Flows
24. Freemium - A system that is known to work
Alumni can share their Coursera experience to get coupons for both themselves and their friends.
Competitors use their ability to offer free courses as a major selling point
• Udacity shows its free courses on the very front of its website
• EdX touts its free courses in the variety of industries
People want education to be free
• Education, especially online education is expected
to be free or low cost
• The freemium model allows this to happen while
giving people the option to purchase more/different
subjects and methods or learning
• Gives the ultimate price discrimination model for
customers
• Coursera gains the ability to gauge how many
people use the service and the potential market of
the company
• Nearly every non-paying customer can be
converted into a paying customer
Direct Increase in Revenue
• According to our survey, a large number of people
wanted Coursera to offer more free courses that led
into a gateway for paying for services
• Students and adults have no problem with paying
for education
• Test Prep is a multi-billion dollar industry1
• The barrier to entry is too great currently for the
average customer
1. http://clients1.ibisworld.com/reports/us/industry/Default.aspx?entid=1544
25. Specific recommendation:
• Give a 14 day free trial
• 14 days are better than 7 because many courses take
months
• Make offers through voucher codes on social media, but
only allowing one code per user
Advantages:
• Gives users exposure to all products but only for a limited
amount of time
• Low marginal cost of free trials makes it an optimal
strategy
Risks:
• People manipulating the system by creating multiple
accounts to get multiple free trials
• The first 2 weeks must be impactful so we can hook the
users
Free 14 Day Trial – Increase exposure with low marginal cost
A free weekly trial would be an effective method of attracting paying customers because it gives them
the paid model experience without as much of a loss as expanding the freemium model.
27. • 54% of customers would consider increasing the amount of business they do with a company for
loyalty rewards1
• Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current
customers2
1. http://web.clickfox.com/rs/clickfox/images/cf-survey-results-brand-loyalty.pdf
2. http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/Listen-to-the-Voice-of-the-Customer-53239.aspx
When students are rewarded for
passing within a certain time limit, they
have incentive to study harder, causing
them to:
Pay more attention to the presentation
of course material
Utilize more of the provided Coursera
resources
Have a positive view of the experience
following completion of the courses
A Rewards Program can allow Coursera to increase customer satisfaction, build customer loyalty,
and retain current customers.
28. For customers who complete and pass a certain number of courses:
• Provide coupons for use on future courses following certification
Benefits:
• Gives customers motivation to use the site more frequently
• Encourage paid users to finish the courses
• Increases loyalty of the customer base
• Gives customers incentive to continue taking more courses on the site
Risks:
• Those who don’t receive the reward may feel
discouraged
• Customers who receive rewards may not necessarily
be loyal customers
Users can receive coupons for future use when they pass a certain number of courses.
30. Second Coursera survey for 25+ users
● Respondents: 133 Stanford Alumni
● 130 over the age of 25
● 63.2% heard of Coursera beforehand
31. Promotional strategies preferred by people who know Coursera
For people who have heard of Coursera, a free introductory course is the most popular
incentive, followed by a free trial week and asked by a friend/family member.
Certificates given
Asked by a friend to take
together
Asked by a family member to
take together
Taken the free introductory
course
Experienced a free one-week
trial to explore courses
32. Promotional strategies preferred by people who have not heard of Coursera
For people who haven’t heard of Coursera, a free one-week trial is the most preferred,
followed by free introductory course and asked by a family member/friend.
Certificates given
Asked by a friend to take together
Asked by a family member to take
together
Taken the free introductory course
Experienced a free one-week trial
to explore courses
33. • The majority of people want to obtain recognition in exchange for taking a Coursera
course to completion
• People also highly value the recommendation of friends, more so than family
Summary of people’s incentives for completing courses
34. Comment Highlights: What would convince you to take a paid Coursera
course?
[A 1-week free trial], nothing else would
convince me, except a friend who has taken a
course and had a valuable experience.“ ”
Friend referral is only one I would even consider.
“
”
I would take a paid Coursera course if I needed it
for work, or if I thought it would be a lot of fun.“
”
