HOW TO DOWNLOAD COURSES AND
SPECIALIZATIONS FROM COURSERA
Summary: For downloading from Coursera, we are going to run a program named
coursera-dl with windows power shell. Before that you will at first install
coursera-dl by pip. Even before that you will make sure that you have Python
installed in your pc. Because pip is included in the python’s installation.
Key note: cmd: command prompt (go to start menu > type ‘cmd’ and it’ll appear ).
Step A: Check if your pc has python installed properly. Also check if pip works. To
check if python has been installed before, open cmd > type python and hit
enter. If you can see something like this, then it is ok.
Python 3.8.5 (tags/v3.8.5:580fbb0, Jul 20 2020, 15:43:08)
[MSC v.1926 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more
information.
If not, then you need to install python. Google ‘how to install python’ and you will
get a detailed instruction.
Step B: Check if pip is working. Again, open cmd and type pip --version. If
you do not see the version (e.g. pip 20.2.2) then you need to fix it. As before,
google it to find the detailed instruction.
MAIN PART
Step 1: Open cmd and type pip install coursera-dl
and hit
enter. The program ‘coursera-dl’ will be installed automatically. If you see any
problem, then you will need to fix your pip or python. Google the error messages
and you will easily find the solution.
[N.B.: You may need to upgrade your pip, add python environment variable to
path etc.]
Step 2: Save this following code to a file named coursera-dl.conf. For doing this,
just copy-paste the code to a notepad file and go to save as and change the file
extension from .txt to .conf. Don’t forget to change the save as type to all files.
--username
--password
--subtitle-language
--download-quizzes
--disable-url-skipping
--cauth
--video-resolution
--download-delay
Step 3: Now you have to edit and save this coursera-dl.conf file according to your
own preferences. A filled example is like this:
--username name@gmail.com
--password 123456
--subtitle-language en
--download-quizzes
--disable-url-skipping
--cauth 6qBalP8atjWorjB-2uNpLCQnN_J412BaIj4Kb
--video-resolution 720p
--download-delay 10
Description:
1. -–username : The email address that you used to open your Coursera
account
2. -–password : The password of your Coursera account.
3. -–cauth : Follow these steps to get the --cauth code.
• Open chrome and go to this link and add this “cookies.txt”
extension to your chrome browser.
• Then go to Coursera homepage, log in and click on that extension’s
icon. You will see something like this. Among the lines, find the one
with the word CAUTH (as highlighted below).
This is the code we were looking for in the previous step. Copy and
paste it after -–cauth. Remember to add only one space
between the word --cauth and the code.
Done! Now save this coursera-dl.conf file and move it to a location where you
want to download your courses.
Step 4: While you are in that folder (where you moved the .conf file) open
windows power shell. (shift + right click and select from the menu)
Step 5: type coursera-dl courseCode and hit enter. Now, what is the
course code? For example, when you go to the homepage of Fundamentals of
Graphic Design course in Coursera, the URL is as follows
https://www.coursera.org/learn/fundamentals-of-graphicdesign/home/welcome
Here, fundamentals-of-graphic-design is the course code. So, if you want to
download this course, then type coursera-dl fundamentals-ofgraphic-design in your PowerShell and hit enter. If no problem occurs, then
the download will begin shortly after some processing. Just wait till the download
finishes. This is the whole process of downloading courses from Coursera.
HOW TO PAUSE THE DOWNLOADING: Just hit ctrl+c and it will pause.
HOW TO RESUME: type coursera-dl --resume courseCode and hit enter
[Caution: If you delete the .json file which is created in the same location, then
you won’t be able to resume. So, don’t delete it.]
HOW TO DOWNLOAD SPECIALIZATIONS:
In your PowerShell, type coursera-dl --specialization
specializationCode and hit enter.
HOW TO RESUME WHILE DOWNLOADING A SPECIALIZATION
In your PowerShell, type coursera-dl --resume --specialization
specializationCode and hit enter.
** For getting help with the parameters, type coursera-dl --help in the
command prompt and hit enter.
CAUTION: Do not log out from coursera in your browser. If you do, then you will
have to log in again and update the CAUTH code of the coursera-dl.conf file in the
same process. For your information, this coursera-dl program is actually using
your browser to download the course. That’s why we are copying these codes
from the browser to that .conf file.
HAPPY LEARNING