Coursera Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The performance-based admissions process prepares capable learners to start their next educational journey. You don’t need transcripts, tests, application fees, or other hurdles to begin taking classes. If you pass the initial “pathway courses” with a B or higher grade and fulfill program requirements, you will be automatically admitted to the program you have applied for.

Fulfillment of program requirements includes submission of transcripts prior to graduation.

All Bachelor of Information Technology students must submit official transcripts in order for the Office of Undergraduate Admission to evaluate your transfer course credits. Unofficial transcripts will not be accepted. Please have your previous institution send your transcripts to ugaprocessing@iit.edu for review. Our office will evaluate your transfer credit within five business days after receiving your official transcripts.

What is the transfer policy for the Bachelor of IT program?

If you have a transcript from an international institution, you must provide: 1) course evaluations from a NACES- or AICE-accredited association, 2) course descriptions, and 3) certified English translations of your materials if they are in a language other than English. These documents must be submitted for all international transcripts before we can evaluate your transcript for course credit.

Transfer credit is not permitted for the three graduate-level programs, except for approved industry certificates (IPC) for two of our programs. More detailed information about the approved industry certificates can be found at the professional certificate information website.

Yes. If you are a domestic student, you can request a Pre-Enrollment transfer credit evaluation even before you enroll in the PBA courses by following the instructions on Pre-Enrollment Transfer Credit Evaluation. However, please note that this is not an official credit evaluation. You will need to request an official evaluation by submitting your official transcripts to the Office of Undergraduate Admission once you are admitted to the program.

Coursera programs are an exclusive arrangement and are not available to existing Illinois Tech students. Likewise, a student who wishes to transfer from a Coursera program to a non-Coursera program at Illinois Tech must reapply to the new program and meet all admission criteria. Transfer credit evaluation is done on a case-by-case basis and is not guaranteed.

Students who have been dismissed from Illinois Tech for academic, conduct, or other reasons will require approval from the Office of Academic Affairs and/or the Dean of Students Office, along with their intended program’s academic unit, before admission into a Coursera program.

If you are a master’s student and will be submitting your bachelor’s degree transcript, you may send it to grad.admission@iit.edu, and by mail to:

Illinois Institute of Technology
Office of Graduate Admission
10 West 33rd Street
Perlstein Hall, Room 203
Chicago, Illinois 60616

Yes. You can transfer pre-approved industry certificates (IPC) for the bachelor’s in IT and two of the Coursera/Illinois Tech master degree programs: Master of Data Science and Master of Business Administration.

You will be able to apply three to six credits toward the degree. The number of prior learning credits is determined by each program. Credit for prior learning is awarded at the time of successful completion of performance-based admissions and formal acceptance into the degree program. More detailed information about the approved industry certificates can be found at each program website for Master of Data Science and Master of Business Administration.

You can submit your MDS or MBA transfer credit request with related certificates and documentation via Credit for Prior Learning Request Form and send your inquiry to pwolfe1@iit.edu.

Yes, students who wish to switch from one Coursera program to another must submit a Coursera Change of Major form via the Coursera Change of Major or Add Additional Major Request form link. If you change your major or add an additional major, you need to complete the new student orientation of the new program to access your courses of the new program in Coursera . If you do not find the new student orientation of the new program, please contact us via Coursera@iit.edu

Yes. You can visit this link to request enrollment and degree verifications. If you are a PBA student, you are considered non-degree until all PBA courses are completed with a grade of B or higher.

You can order official PDF transcripts electronically online with your ID number.

If you are a new student or need to complete pathway (PBA) courses, please access the Coursera Course Registration portal to register for a course.

If you have completed the PBA courses and are ready to register for post-pathway or core degree courses, please login to the Illinois Tech Portal. Additional step-by-step instructions for non-PBA course registration can be found on our website under “Enroll in Coursera Courses.”

You will need a registration PIN in order to access the courses. For a master’s degree student, you will find your registration PIN in the QuickView section on the Welcome page in the Illinois Tech Portal. For a bachelor’s degree student, you will receive an email with the PIN information.

This may be due to one of the following reasons:

• Unlinked Account
  If you have already received the registration confirmation email after your registration for Coursera courses at the Coursera-Illinois Tech registration page with the tuition payment, make sure that you have linked your Coursera account to the degree program. This process can be found in the “Welcome” email from Illinois Tech. Once your account is linked, you will be redirected to the Degree Home Page on Coursera and you can find your registered course(s) there.
• Processing Time
  Processing registration can take up to 36–48 hours. If your registration is completed within 24 hours, wait for another day to process your registration.
• Incomplete Orientation Course
  If you still do not see your course after 36 hours, email us at Coursera@iit.edu with more details on your case with your registration confirmation email and tuition payment receipts.

Yes. You can register for as many courses as you’d like as long as it does not exceed the credit hour limit per term.

Once you have completed your PBA courses successfully, your student status will be changed from a non-degree student to a conditionally-admitted degree-seeking student, and you will be considered a degree-seeking student. Once you have completed 9 (for GR) or 12 (for UG) credit hours, including the PBA courses, in Good Standing, you will be fully admitted to your program. Updates to student records should happen within approximately 2 weeks of receiving final grades.

You will be able to register for post-PBA and core degree courses within your program via the Illinois Tech Portal.

Students who enroll in Coursera’s performance-based admission (PBA) pathway courses can retake any of the three PBA courses one additional time—at cost—to improve their grades. For the first retake, there is no need for prior approval. The registration process is the same as for the original course.

PBA students will work through an academic appeal process in order to take PBA course(s) multiple times. They need to submit the graduate student petition form for their multiple PBA repeat requests. This process takes place with guidance from Illinois Tech’s Academic Affairs office.

The first repeated PBA course is for a grade exclusion; any other approved repeated PBA course will then factor into a student’s grade-point average.

For non-PBA courses, please refer to the undergraduate course repeat policy and the graduate course repeat policy. The form to request an undergraduate course repeat can be found online and the graduate form can also be found online.

MOOC is an acronym for Massive Open Online Courses. To enroll in an Illinois Tech MOOC course, you will need to do the following:

• Go to coursera.org
• Search for your Illinois Tech course
• Select the Public version of the course
• Pay the course fee
• Complete the required Modules with at least an 80%

Once you complete the MOOC version of the course, you can apply your work to earn academic credit at Illinois Tech.

To receive credit towards degree completion for a MOOC course, you must:

• Enroll at the Illinois Tech Coursera Portal and pay tuition for the credit version of the MOOC course the next term it is available
• Complete all assignments that did not transfer* including the for-credit summative assessments (final exams) with at least an 80%
• Take part in both Office Hours and Live Sessions with the instructor of your respective course

* Some graded assignments such as Module Assessments may be longer and include graded activities that were not included in the MOOC version of the course.

For PBA students: Please contact coursera@iit.edu for password assistance. As a reminder, your username and password reset are sent to your personal account, not your Illinois Tech account.

For post-PBA/degree students: Please contact supportdesk@iit.edu or use the Forgot Password function available on the login page.

You will access your for-credit degree courses through the Coursera-Illinois Tech degree homepage.

To ensure that you are in your for-credit degree courses, you must link your accounts and complete the new student orientation course. After your conversion from MOOC to for credit version of the course, you must complete additional learning materials and summative assessment to earn credit.

For PBA courses, you will see “For Credit” in front of the summative assessments.

To find your grades you should navigate to “Banner 9 - Self Service” app in your OKTA Dashboard at access.iit.edu and then follow this direction:

1. Click on the Windows icon in the upper left corner.
2. Click on “Banner.”
3. Click on "Student."
4. Click on “Record.”
5. Click on “Student Grade.”
6. Select term and course level.

Then you should be able to see your grades.

Yes. Illinois Tech does not require Coursera students to enroll every term. While your adviser (who you will be assigned to once you are fully admitted to a program at Illinois Tech) should be informed of your intent, we do not require notification if you choose to take a term off.

Coursera tuition is set by program. Program tuition covers the required courses for the program, but it does not cover pathway courses that are repeated, failed attempts at credit by proficiency, additional courses needed to meet transfer credit requirements, or courses taken that are not required for the program. Full-program tuition is $18,000 for undergraduate-level programs and $15,000 for graduate programs. Costs will be divided by course and will be payable during the term that the course is taken. Illinois Tech reserves the right to reevaluate program tuition on an annual basis.

The deadline to request a refund is the same as the add/drop date. Any courses removed after the last day to add or drop a course are subject to forfeiture of tuition. Fees for courses started via MOOC and that are completed via a credit by proficiency exam will not be refunded under any circumstances. You can find more information on the difference between withdrawing from vs. dropping a course at the Office of the Registrar website.

For PBA courses, Requests for refunds due to a dropped course(s) are processed upon submission of the Coursera Course Drop/Withdraw Form.

No. Coursera Illinois Tech programs are not currently eligible for United States federal financial aid and there are currently no scholarships available. Illinois Tech encourages you to speak about tuition reimbursement through your employer.

You can register for the PBA courses via the Application and PBA Course Registration Form. For post-PBA courses which can be registered via the Illinois Tech Portal, you will need to submit a letter of sponsorship and billing information. More detailed information about the process can be found on the How to Arrange Third-party Sponsored Billing website (Sample Employer Sponsorship Letter)

Yes. Illinois Institute of Technology proudly processes United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits for admitted veteran and active duty students. Veterans admitted to Illinois Tech are eligible to process the VA benefits listed below.

Students eligible for the Montgomery GI Bill® —either active duty (Chapter 30) or selected reserve (Chapter 1606)—

Chapter 35 Yellow Ribbon benefits cover the majority of the tuition expenses that an Illinois Tech student will have. Each year the VA sets a threshold for the maximum amount of tuition that the Post-9/11 GI Bill will cover. These rates can be found on the VA’s website. Once this amount is maximized, the Yellow Ribbon program and Illinois Tech will cover the remaining charges on your account for the term. Service members enrolled in the Post-9/11 GI Bill program can transfer unused education benefits to their spouses or children as of August 1, 2009. Families looking to apply for TEB must visit the milConnect website.

Reserve Educational Assistance Program (REAP) is a United States Department of Defense education benefit program designed to provide educational assistance to members of the reserve components called or ordered to active duty in response to a war or national emergency (contingency operation) as declared by the president or Congress. This program makes certain reservists who were activated for at least 90 days after September 11, 2001, either eligible for education benefits or eligible for increased benefits.

Chapter 35 Survivors of Dependents Assistance (DEA) provides education and training opportunities to eligible dependents of certain veterans. The program offers up to 45 months of education benefits. These benefits may be used for degree and certificate programs, apprenticeship, and on-the-job training. If you are a spouse, you may take a correspondence course. Remedial, deficiency, and refresher courses may be approved under certain circumstances.

The Vocational Readiness and Employment program is a service for veterans who have a service-connected disability. Education and vocational counseling is available for eligible service members, current beneficiaries of GI Bill programs, and veterans and qualified dependents who are eligible for educational assistance under any of the GI Bill programs.

First-Time Applicants (New Students)

If you have not processed VA benefits at Illinois Tech before, please complete the following steps:

1. Apply for VA benefits with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (if you have already not done so) and obtain your certificate of eligibility. For more information on how to apply, please visit the Department of Veterans Affairs website
2. Send a digital copy of your certificate of eligibility via email to Christopher Lee at ;clee106@iit.edu
3. Register for PBA courses via the Application and PBA Course Registration Form. This is important to avoid tuition charges at registration time.
4. Certifying VA benefits can take up to three weeks after the start of the term.
5. You are still responsible for the tuition if the VA benefit certification does not go through for any reason.

If you have any questions about processing your benefits, please email Christopher Lee at clee106@iit.edu.

After a student has used benefits for their first semester, students will be certified automatically for proceeding semesters by the school certifying official unless the certifying official is notified otherwise.

If there is a semester that you do not want to process benefits, please email Christopher Lee at clee106@iit.edu to request that your enrollment not be certified.

Please contact the university's specialized staff with any VA benefits questions you may have:

Christopher Lee
Assistant Registrar, Office of the Registrar
clee106@iit.edu
312.567.3571

Unfortunately, fees cannot be automatically waived. However, you may be eligible for financial aid. Please refer to the screenshot for more information on how to apply. You can also find additional details about the financial aid application process in this article.

Yes. The enrollment verification for the employer tuition reimbursement purpose for PBA students can be requested by submitting an email to coursera@iit.edu.

Receipts for tuition paid can be requested by submitting an email to coursera@iit.edu.

The entire loan deferment process is handled directly by you and your individual loan servicer to set the requirements and deadlines for deferment requests.

For Coursera Enrollment: The first term of your Coursera program taking PBA courses is considered non-degree seeking. Students who are non-degree seeking are not eligible for deferment at all.  

Once your student status becomes degree-seeking after completion of three PBA courses successfully in your program, the university registrar will report your enrollment to a central database (National Clearinghouse) around the third week. If you're enrolled half-time or more, this reported status can trigger an in-school deferment for your loans.

What You Can Do:

• In case you reach out to your loan servicer directly for inquiry about the deferment process, they might require documentation of your enrollment directly from the university.
• Keep an eye on your enrollment status and communication from the university about reporting to the National Clearinghouse. 

No. As an online student and a student enrolled through Coursera, you are exempt from the university’s health insurance requirement and are not required to enroll in this health insurance plan. You will not be billed for this health insurance coverage.

If you are able to visit campus and would like an ID card to access the library, please complete the request form here: https://www.iit.edu/cbsc/campus-access/hawkcard/campus-identification

You will then be instructed to pick up the card on campus when it is ready.

As an Illinois Tech student, MS Office Product such as Word or Excel are freely available. You need to visit https://iit.okta.com and log in with your IIT credentials. After your login, you can find the MS 365 Portal icon and click it.

At the MS 365 Office Portal, find an install option on the right top corner.

If you have any trouble with the access and installation process, you can contact supportdesk@iit.edu.

Access to Coursera courses is suspended one week after the grades are posted in the course to help maintain the academic integrity of the program and allow for regular maintenance of individual courses. You are advised to download any material you wish to keep before the last official day of class to avoid the loss of work or feedback.

You can check Coursera’s list of recommended browsers and devices for a general computer guideline. For courses specific skills and experience requirements, please check descriptions of the course before your registration.