USM + Coursera Career Academy

The University of Southern Mississippi’s Coursera Career Academy gives eligible students access to online, career-focused learning through Coursera. Through Career Academy, learners can explore entry-level career paths and enroll in selected Professional Certificates designed by leading companies.

These certificate programs help learners build job-relevant skills through a series of courses and hands-on activities. Many programs are designed to support career exploration, skill development, and portfolio building in fields such as business, technology, data, marketing, project management, and more.

Yes. If you access Coursera through the University of Southern Mississippi’s Career Academy or university-sponsored learning program, eligible learners can enroll in available Career Academy content at no additional cost.

To make sure you are enrolling for free, you should access courses through the university’s Career Academy page or learning program rather than browsing Coursera separately.

Yes, it is important to enroll through the University of Southern Mississippi’s Career Academy learning program or through Canvas if you professor is using Coursera in their course because access this way is covered by the university. 

USM’s Career Academy page is designed to help you discover certificates by career interest and see curated options available through the university program. If you enroll outside the university-sponsored catalog, you may not receive free access to that content.

After you complete all required courses and assessments in a Professional Certificate, you will earn a shareable digital certificate from Coursera.

You can use your certificate to:

• Add it to your resume
• Share it on LinkedIn
• Include it in job applications
• Highlight your skills in internship or career conversations

Completing a certificate can also help you identify next learning steps if you want to continue building skills in a related field.

Once you’re logged in, check for the USM logo at the top banner - that’s how you’ll know you’re in the right place. If you find yourself in a space where you’re asked to pay for a course, you’ve likely navigated away from the USM Coursera Career Academy content.

When returning to USM Coursera, make sure you log in with the “University of Southern Mississippi” or “sign in with your organization." Do not sign back into the general Coursera website.

You can enroll students automatically by using the Coursera LTI integration with Canvas. When a learner launches Coursera through the Canvas for the first time, Coursera creates an account using the email address provided by Canvas during the integration flow. If the learner has an existing Coursera account that uses the same Canvas email address, the enrollment is linked to their existing account. No new Coursera account will be created.

If you are using Coursera outside of the LTI integration with Canvas, you can enroll your students directly from your learning program in Coursera. To create a learning program for your class, complete the Coursera request form.

A Learning Program is your custom space (like a Canvas shell) in Coursera where you manage both the who (learners) and the what (assigned content) for your course or group.

At USM, a Learning Program lets you:

• Invite learners – Add student emails or enable self-enrollment with “usm.edu”
• Assign content – Choose courses, modules, guided projects, or Professional Certificates
• Set parameters – Control start/end dates, credit/no-credit, and auto-enroll
• Track progress – View dashboards, export gradebooks, and monitor completion rate

Why it matters: A Learning Program centralizes your class’s Coursera experience—making it easier to deliver content, track learning, and connect coursework to industry-recognized skills.

You can integrate Coursera content and industry credentials into your classes by using the Coursera LTI integration with Canvas. You can link an entire Coursera professional certificate, course, module, assignment, or video into your Canvas courses using the integration. 

Please refer to the following resources on how you can get started with the integration.

• Step-by-step guide on how to link different types of Coursera content
• Video tutorials on how to link different types of Coursera content 
• Resource article with instructions, an FAQ, and troubleshooting guide.

If you have technical questions about the Coursera LTI integration please go to the Admin Help Center, log into Coursera if you are not already logged in, and click “Contact Us” in the upper right-hand corner to contact Coursera’s Support Team. When filling out the form, please cc Joanne.TranFREEMississippi & tweston@coursera.org. Please include a detailed description of what support you need and screenshots if applicable. 

If you or your students have general technical questions about the Coursera platform, please contact Coursera’s Learner Support Team. Live chat is available if you or your student is logged into Coursera on the Learner Help Center. If you are unable to log in, you can use this contact form. Please tell Coursera’s Support Team that you have an university-sponsored account through The University of Southern Mississippi, and share a detailed description of your issue.