Create a New Course

Note: This article is also hosted in our Partner Resource Center.

You can create a new course at anytime from www.coursera.org/admin:

When you create a new course, you’re creating what’s called a “course shell.” The course shell is the main container for your course that holds your different course versions, instances, and sessions. While you can create multiple versions, instances, and sessions, they'll all belong to that one course shell.

In addition, certain course settings exist at the course-shell level, which means that they apply across all course versions, instances, and sessions. For example, Course Certificate settings exist at the course-shell level, so those settings (including logos, instructor signatures, and disclaimers) will apply to every version, instance, and session of your course.

In this article, we’ll go over some important things to know when creating a new course, walk you through the steps, and provide helpful resources for what comes after.

Important things to know when creating a new course

Below, we’ll go over a few aspects of the course creation flow in detail so you know which settings matter right away and what things you can change anytime before course launch.

Who can create new courses

To help protect your company's content, only partner admins, instructors, and data coordinators can create new courses.

When learners can see and enroll in the new course

Newly created courses are always saved as a draft, and learners cannot see draft courses. Before the course can open for enrollment, it needs to go through our standard review and launch process first.

What choices you need to make right away and what you can do later

We’ve made it as easy as possible for you to create a new course and quickly get started adding content to it. While you will need to add some initial details about your course, you don’t need to worry about every detail right away.

You can change the following things anytime before course launch:

• Course name
• Course URL
• Primary course language
• Launch date

Steps to create a new course

1. Go to www.coursera.org/admin.
2. Click Create Course and then select Create New.
3. Enter some initial information about your course. Remember, you can change all of this information anytime before course launch. For now, you’ll be asked to add the following:
   • Course Name: The title of your course, which learners will see in the course catalog and the course landing page. 
   • URL: The URL for your course, which will take people to your course landing page. 
   • Primary Course Language: The primary language spoken in your instructional videos. Automatic subtitles for videos will be generated based on the primary course language you select.
   • Target Launch Date: The date you want to launch your course by. This can be changed later from the Session Settings page.
4. Click Continue.
5. Click Create Course.