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Completing a Coursera Specialization for Free

Coursera provides continuing education just like Udacity and offer the full learning experience that I am accustomed to, including lesson videos, reading materials, projects, discussion forums, and graded projects which are peer-reviewed. I recently completed the Full-stack Web Development in React specialization from Coursera, all for free. It’s called a specialization because it is made up of three courses below each with their own certifications and which takes 4-6 weeks each to complete: 1. Front-End Web UI Frameworks and Tools: Bootstrap 4 2. Front-End Web Development with React 3. Server-side Development with NodeJS, Express and MongoDB I started the program in December 2021 and finished it in June 2023 however. The intent of this post is to explain how I was able to fund the entire specialization for free. In December 2021, I read on social media that Coursera allowed for one free course per year if you were a student and had an email address from a partner school. I gave my stu

Testimonials

Here are some of our past client, some have graciously given their feedback on our services and relationship:
  • Elizabeth Hernandez, Sharepoint student
  • FishThatDate.com, Vancouver, BC – one-time web design
  • Lisa Fraser, Sole Proprietor for lfraserdesign.com
  • Talies In Works
  • Tradeline
  • Essa Technologies Ltd.
  • Grandview Blacktop Ltd, Burnaby, BC – Perform monthly computer maintenance on the last Wednesday of the month for 6hrs from 10am – 4pm. Tasks included applying windows patches, rebooting servers, checking tape backups, checking disk space, trending on disk space/tape backup usage, disaster recovery documentation, etc.
  • Janice Lohmann, Microsoft, Dallas, TX – Update monthly newsletters using MS Expression Web. Newsletters are about 10-15 web screens in length.
  • Kevin Murray, Sole Proprietor for www.trainyourdogkit.com, www.guidebookforweddings.com, and www.guideforflyfishing .com
  • Martin Disability Management Services
  • National Graphics Solutions Inc (NGSI), Delta, BC – one-time project-based IT implementation.
  • PNB
  • Raider Hansen Tools, Burnaby, BC – On-call computer and VPN support.

These are some of the past projects we have completed:

  • Google Mail Migration from EMC. 
  • Datacentre upgrades with environment control.  
  • Internet filtering and acceleration using OpenDNS. 
  • Remote Access Strategy via VPN and RDP. 
  • Disk-based Backups using NAS device like a Drobo. 
  • Virtualization using VMware Server. 
  • Paypal integration in an e-commerce site and e-book downloads.

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Completing a Coursera Specialization for Free

Coursera provides continuing education just like Udacity and offer the full learning experience that I am accustomed to, including lesson videos, reading materials, projects, discussion forums, and graded projects which are peer-reviewed. I recently completed the Full-stack Web Development in React specialization from Coursera, all for free. It’s called a specialization because it is made up of three courses below each with their own certifications and which takes 4-6 weeks each to complete: 1. Front-End Web UI Frameworks and Tools: Bootstrap 4 2. Front-End Web Development with React 3. Server-side Development with NodeJS, Express and MongoDB I started the program in December 2021 and finished it in June 2023 however. The intent of this post is to explain how I was able to fund the entire specialization for free. In December 2021, I read on social media that Coursera allowed for one free course per year if you were a student and had an email address from a partner school. I gave my stu

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