Coursera Progress Skill
Fetch enrollment status, grades, deadlines, and certificates from Coursera via the Coursera REST API v1.
Authentication setup
Coursera uses OAuth 2.0. Two paths:
Path A — Personal access (for learners)
- Go to coursera.org/account/api → Generate key
- Note the Client ID and Client Secret
- Get a token (client credentials flow):
export COURSERA_CLIENT_ID="your_client_id"
export COURSERA_CLIENT_SECRET="your_client_secret"
COURSERA_ACCESS_TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST \
"https://api.coursera.com/oauth2/client_credentials/token" \
-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
-d "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=$COURSERA_CLIENT_ID&client_secret=$COURSERA_CLIENT_SECRET" \
| python3 -c "import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['access_token'])")
export COURSERA_ACCESS_TOKEN
Path B — Unofficial API (no key needed)
Coursera's public endpoints don't require auth for some queries. Use when the user hasn't set up credentials.
Base URL and headers
https://api.coursera.com/api
AUTH_HEADER="Authorization: Bearer $COURSERA_ACCESS_TOKEN"
Core API calls
Get enrollments for a user
# Get your own user ID first
curl -s "https://api.coursera.com/api/users/v1/me" \
-H "$AUTH_HEADER"
# Then fetch enrollments
curl -s "https://api.coursera.com/api/enrollments.v1?userId=USER_ID&fields=courseId,enrolledAt,grade,completedAt,certificateCode" \
-H "$AUTH_HEADER"
Get course details by ID
curl -s "https://api.coursera.com/api/courses.v1?ids=COURSE_ID_1,COURSE_ID_2&fields=name,slug,description,specializations" \
-H "$AUTH_HEADER"
Get on-demand course progress
curl -s "https://api.coursera.com/api/onDemandCourseCompletions.v1?userId=USER_ID&courseId=COURSE_ID&fields=progressPercent,completedAt,grade" \
-H "$AUTH_HEADER"
Get assignment deadlines
curl -s "https://api.coursera.com/api/onDemandDeadlineSchedules.v1?courseId=COURSE_ID&fields=deadlineSchedule,moduleIds" \
-H "$AUTH_HEADER"
Get certificate info
curl -s "https://api.coursera.com/api/certificates.v1?userId=USER_ID&fields=courseId,issuedAt,verifyUrl,grade" \
-H "$AUTH_HEADER"
Search for courses
curl -s "https://api.coursera.com/api/courses.v1?q=search&query=SEARCH_TERM&fields=name,slug,partnerIds,primaryLanguages" \
-H "$AUTH_HEADER" \
| python3 -m json.tool
Displaying results
Active enrollments summary:
Your Coursera Courses
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
📚 Machine Learning Specialization (Stanford/DeepLearning.AI)
Progress: 68% complete Grade: 91.4%
Next deadline: Mar 28 — Week 4 Programming Assignment
📚 Python for Everybody (University of Michigan)
Progress: 100% ✅ Grade: 96.7%
Certificate: Issued Jan 12, 2026
Verify: https://coursera.org/verify/XXXX
📚 SQL for Data Science (UC Davis)
Progress: 23% Grade: —
Next deadline: Apr 3 — Module 2 Quiz
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Certificates earned: 1 Active courses: 2
Upcoming deadlines:
Deadlines (next 14 days):
Mar 28 Week 4 Programming Assignment — Machine Learning
Apr 3 Module 2 Quiz — SQL for Data Science
Apr 10 Peer Review Submission — Machine Learning
Without API credentials (public lookup)
For course search and public course info:
# Public course info (no auth)
curl -s "https://api.coursera.com/api/courses.v1?q=search&query=python&includes=instructors&fields=name,partnerIds,instructorIds,primaryLanguages,workload" \
| python3 -m json.tool
For personal data (grades, certificates), credentials are required.
Python helper for parsing progress
import json, subprocess, os
def get_enrollments(user_id):
token = os.environ["COURSERA_ACCESS_TOKEN"]
r = subprocess.run(
["curl", "-s",
f"https://api.coursera.com/api/enrollments.v1?userId={user_id}"
f"&fields=courseId,enrolledAt,grade,completedAt,certificateCode",
"-H", f"Authorization: Bearer {token}"],
capture_output=True, text=True)
return json.loads(r.stdout).get("elements", [])
def upcoming_deadlines(enrollments, days=14):
from datetime import date, timedelta
cutoff = (date.today() + timedelta(days=days)).isoformat()
# Parse deadlines per course and filter by date
...
Error handling
| Error | Meaning | Fix |
|---|
401 Unauthorized | Token expired or missing | Re-run token generation step |
403 Forbidden | Scope missing on key | Regenerate API key with correct scopes |
Empty elements array | No enrollments found | Confirm correct user ID |
| Rate limit (429) | Too many requests | Back off 30s; Coursera is ~100 req/min |
