coursera-helper

coursera-helper is forked from coursera-dl which is no longer maintained.

• Introduction
• Installation instructions
  • Installation (recommended)
  • Manual Installation
  • Docker container
• Before the start
• Quick Start
  • List courses
  • Download course
  • More download options
  • Use configuration file
• Troubleshooting
  • china-issues
• Reporting issues
• Disclaimer

Introduction

coursera-helper is a tool for downloading Coursera.org videos and naming them..

It is platform independent, and should work fine under Unix (Linux, BSDs etc.), Windows or Mac OS X.

Installation instructions

coursera-helper requires Python 3 and very few other dependencies. (As of October 2023, coursera-helper passed the test of Python versions 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, and 3.11).

Installation (recommended)

Opening a terminal and typing the command If you have installed Python:

pip install coursera-helper

Manual Installation

pip install git+https://github.com/csyezheng/coursera-helper.git

Docker container

You can run this application via Docker if you want. Just install docker and run

docker run --rm -it -v \
    "$(pwd):/courses" \
     csyezheng/coursera-helper --cauth <CAUTH-value> <course name>

• Please note that it will prompt that unable to find the image locally, please wait patiently for downloading.

• Please note that when running in docker mode, only the --cauth parameter can be passed for authentication, and username, password, and --browser-cookie parameters are not accepted.

• The course files will be downloaded to your current directory.

Before the start

coursera-helper supports four authentication methods:

1. CAUTH (recommended)

   Just use the --cauth CAUTH-value-from-browser option when running the program.

   How to get the cauth value?

2. Browser cookies

   Just use the --browser-cookie option when running the program.

   Automatically extract CAUTH value from the browser cookie. If this method fails, please use other authentication methods.

3. Username and Password

   Just use the -u <user> -p <pass> options when running the program.

   Please note that this method will open the browser, you may have to click on the reCAPTCHA.

4. netrc File

   Just use the --netrc options when running the program.

Quick Start

Run the following command to query the usage and options:

coursera-helper --help

List courses

Run the following command to query the courses in which you are enrolled:

coursera-helper --cauth <CAUTH> --list-courses

or

coursera-helper --browser-cookie --list-courses

or

coursera-helper -u <email or username> --list-courses

Download course

From there, choose the course you are interested in, copy its course name and use it in the following command:

coursera-helper -u <email or username> <COURSE NAME>

Your downloaded videos will be placed in current directory, but you can also choose another destination with the --path argument.

More download options

General download:

coursera-helper --cauth <CAUTH> <COURSE NAME>

Specify download location:

coursera-helper --cauth <CAUTH> --path <PATH> <COURSE NAME>

Download with subtitles:

coursera-helper --cauth <CAUTH> --subtitle-language en,zh-CN|zh-TW <COURSE NAME>

Specify video resolution：

coursera-helper --cauth <CAUTH> --video-resolution 720p <COURSE NAME>

Download with quizzes:

coursera-helper --cauth <CAUTH> --download-quizzes <COURSE NAME>

Download with notebooks:

coursera-helper --cauth <CAUTH> --download-notebooks <COURSE NAME>

Use configuration file

Alternatively, if you want to store your preferred parameters (which might also include your username and password), create a file named coursera-dl.conf where the script is supposed to be executed, with the following format:

--username <user>
--password <pass>
--subtitle-language en,zh-CN|zh-TW
--download-quizzes
--download-notebooks
--video-resolution 720p
--download-delay 10
--cauth <cauth value>

If you have created a file named coursera-dl.conf, you just download course with command:

coursera-helper <COURSE NAME>

Troubleshooting

CAUTH

Find your coursera CAUTH:

• Open and login to https://www.coursera.org/
• Right-click on the touchpad or mouse until you find inspect.
• Go to Applications > Cookies (and click dropdown) > click https://www.coursera.org/ > find and click CAUTH > Copy value CAUTH.

Chrome:

1. Open the browser and login to https://www.coursera.org/

2. Open the last DevTools panel

   Windows or Linux: Press F12 on the keyboard. Or press the Ctrl + Shift + I keys.

   Mac: Press Fn + F12 on the keyboard. Or press the Cmd + Option + I keys.

3. Open Application > Storage > Cookies and select https://www.coursera.org/.

4. find and click CAUTH > Copy value CAUTH

Firefox:

1. Open the browser and login to https://www.coursera.org/

2. Open the last DevTools panel

   Windows or Linux: Press F12 on the keyboard. Or press the Ctrl + Shift + I keys.

   Mac: Press Fn + F12 on the keyboard. Or press the Cmd + Option + I keys.

3. Open Storage > Cookies and select https://www.coursera.org/.

4. find and click CAUTH > Copy value CAUTH

china-issues

If you are from China and you're having problems downloading videos, adding

52.84.167.78   d3c33hcgiwev3.cloudfront.net

in the hosts file (/etc/hosts or C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc)

Flush DNS with this command in the terminal.

ipconfig /flushdns

Reporting issues

Before reporting any issue please follow the steps below:

1. Verify that you are running the latest version of all the programs. Use the following command if in doubt:

    pip install --upgrade coursera-helper
   

2. If the problem persists, feel free to open an issue in our bug tracker, please fill the issue template with as much information as possible.

Disclaimer

coursera-helper is meant to be used only for your material that coursera gives you access to download. We do not encourage any use that violates their Terms Of Use.