Download Coursera Courses for Free Using coursera-dlp

A complete guide to download Coursera courses including paid specializations using the command-line tool coursera-dlp

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Introduction

Coursera is one of the most popular and extensive online educational platforms available today. It has partnered with prestigious universities, educational institutions, and organizations to offer online courses, specializations, and degrees in numerous subjects—including engineering, humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, mathematics, business, computer science, digital marketing, data science, and many more.

While Coursera allows you to watch courses online, sometimes you may want to download the content for offline viewing or archival purposes, especially after you've paid for the content. This guide will show you how to use the command-line tool coursera-dlp to download your enrolled Coursera courses efficiently and organize them for offline access.

Important Note: The original post mentioned coursera-dl, but this tool is no longer actively maintained. We'll be using coursera-dlp, which is the actively maintained fork with additional features and fixes.

Why Use coursera-dlp?

There are several ways to download online course content, including generic tools like youtube-dl, you-get, or wget. However, these have significant limitations when it comes to Coursera:

  • Video filenames often have numbers that don't correspond to the actual course order, requiring manual renaming
  • Using wget in a loop often downloads extra or duplicate videos
  • Most tools don't allow downloading multiple courses simultaneously
  • Generic tools don't preserve the course structure and organization

coursera-dlp solves these problems and offers additional features specifically designed for Coursera courses:

  • Properly organizes content by week and lesson
  • Maintains the correct order of videos and materials
  • Downloads subtitles, slides, and additional resources
  • Allows batch downloading of multiple courses or entire specializations
  • Creates playlists for seamless offline viewing

Installing coursera-dlp

Installing coursera-dlp is straightforward using pip:

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For a system-wide installation (requires administrator privileges):

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System Requirements

  • Python 3.7 or higher
  • pip package manager
  • An active Coursera account with enrolled courses

Authentication Methods

Before you can download courses, you need to authenticate with Coursera. There are three main ways to authenticate:

Method 1: Using Email and Password

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While simple, this method may not work reliably due to Coursera's security measures and may trigger CAPTCHA challenges.

Method 2: Using Cookies (Recommended)

This more reliable method uses your browser cookies:

  1. Log in to Coursera in your browser
  2. Install a cookie export extension:
    • For Chrome: "EditThisCookie" or "Cookie-Editor"
    • For Firefox: "Cookie Quick Manager" or "Cookie-Editor"
  3. Export cookies as a JSON or Netscape format file
  4. Use the cookies file with coursera-dlp:
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Method 3: Using CAUTH Token

The CAUTH token is a specific authentication cookie from Coursera:

  1. Log in to Coursera in your browser
  2. Open Developer Tools (F12 or Right-click → Inspect)
  3. Go to Application tab → Cookies → coursera.org
  4. Find the "CAUTH" cookie and copy its value
  5. Use the CAUTH value:
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Basic Usage

Once you have authentication set up, you can start downloading courses.

Downloading a Single Course

To download a single course, you need the course "slug" - the unique identifier in the course URL.

For example, for "Introduction to Deep Learning" (URL: https://www.coursera.org/learn/intro-to-deep-learning), the slug is "intro-to-deep-learning":

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Finding the Course Slug

The course slug is the part of the URL after "/learn/" for individual courses or after "/specializations/" for specializations:

Downloading an Entire Specialization

One of coursera-dlp's most powerful features is the ability to download all courses within a specialization using a single command:

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This will download all courses included in the Deep Learning specialization.

Downloading Multiple Specializations or Courses

You can download multiple courses or specializations in a single command by listing them:

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Advanced Configuration

The default settings of coursera-dlp may not suit everyone's needs. Here are some useful options to customize your downloads:

Setting Video Quality

By default, coursera-dlp downloads videos in 540p. To change the resolution:

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Available resolutions typically include: 360p, 540p, 720p, and sometimes 1080p.

Subtitle Options

To specify which subtitle languages to download:

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Use comma-separated language codes for multiple languages:

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Downloading Additional Materials

To download quizzes, assignments, and other supplementary materials:

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Creating Playlists

For easier viewing of the course videos in sequence:

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This creates an .m3u playlist file that works with most media players.

Specifying Download Location

To save courses to a specific directory:

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Resuming Interrupted Downloads

If your download gets interrupted, you can resume where you left off:

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Creating a Configuration File

Rather than typing long commands with multiple options each time, you can create a configuration file with your preferred settings:

  1. Create a file named .coursera-dlp in your home directory
  2. Add your preferred options, one per line:
--cookies
/path/to/cookies.txt
--subtitle-language
en
--video-resolution
720p
--download-quizzes
--resume
--playlist
--path
/path/to/coursera/folder

Now you can run coursera-dlp with minimal commands:

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All your preferred options will be automatically applied.

Automating Multiple Downloads

For batch downloading multiple courses or specializations, you can create a shell script:

  1. Create a text file (e.g., download-courses.sh)
  2. Add the courses you want to download:
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  1. Make the script executable:
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  1. Run the script:
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Troubleshooting

Common Issues and Solutions

  1. Authentication Failures:

    • Try the cookie-based authentication method
    • Ensure your Coursera session is active in your browser
    • Check if your account has access to the course you're trying to download

  2. "Course Not Found" Error:

    • Verify you're using the correct course slug
    • Make sure you're enrolled in the course on Coursera
    • Check if the course is still available on the platform

  3. Slow Downloads:

    • Try using the --external-downloader aria2c option for faster downloads
    • Consider limiting concurrent downloads with --jobs 2

  4. Incomplete Downloads:

    • Use the --resume flag to continue interrupted downloads
    • Check your disk space

Best Practices

  1. Organize Downloads: Use the --path option to organize courses by category or topic
  2. Batch Download Overnight: Schedule large download batches during off-peak hours
  3. Verify Downloads: Use the --verify-successful flag to ensure all files were downloaded correctly
  4. Update Regularly: Keep coursera-dlp updated with pip install --upgrade coursera-dlp

Keeping Your Courses Updated

Coursera occasionally updates course content. To update your downloaded courses:

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The --download-new-only flag ensures only new content is downloaded.

Ethical Considerations

While coursera-dlp makes it easy to download content from Coursera, it's important to use this tool ethically:

  • Only download courses you're enrolled in or have paid for
  • Don't share downloaded materials publicly or commercially
  • Respect Coursera's Terms of Service and intellectual property rights
  • Consider purchasing courses to support educators and the platform

Conclusion

coursera-dlp is a powerful tool for organizing and downloading your Coursera courses for offline learning. By following this guide, you can efficiently download and manage your educational content while maintaining the structure and quality of the original courses.

Remember to respect copyright and use this tool only for personal educational purposes. Happy learning!

Additional Resources

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