Coursera Downloader

Coursera is creating some fantastic, free educational classes (e.g., algorithms, machine learning, natural language processing, SaaS). This script allows one to batch download lecture resources (e.g., videos, ppt, etc) for a Coursera class. Given a class name and related cookie file, it scrapes the course listing page to get the week and class names, and then downloads the related materials into appropriately named files and directories.

Why is this helpful? Before I was using wget, but I had the following problems:

1. Video names have a number in them, but this does not correspond to the actual order. Manually renaming them is a pain.
2. Using names from the syllabus page provides more informative names.
3. Using a wget in a for loop picks up extra videos which are not posted/linked, and these are sometimes duplicates.

DownloadThemAll can also work, but this provides better names.

Inspired in part by youtube-dl by which I've downloaded many other good videos such as those from Khan Academy.

Features

• Intentionally detailed names, so that it will display and sort properly on most interfaces (e.g., MX Video on Android phone).
• Regex-based section (week) and lecture name filters to download only certain resources.
• File format extension filter to grab resource types you want.
• Login credentials accepted on command-line or from .netrc file
• Tested on Linux, Mac and Windows.

Directions

Requires Python 2.x (where x >= 5) and a free Coursera account enrolled in the class of interest.

1. Install any missing dependencies.

• Beautiful Soup 3
  Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install python-beautifulsoup
  Other: easy_install BeautifulSoup
• Argparse (Not necessary if Python version >= 2.7)
  Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install python-argparse
  Other: easy_install argparse
• easy_install (for the above)
  Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install python-setuptools

2. Create a Coursera.org account and enroll in a class. e.g. http://saas-class.org

3. Run the script to download the materials by providing your Coursera username, password (or a ~/.netrc file) and the class name.

General:                 coursera-dl saas -u <user> -p <pass>
Filter by section name:  coursera-dl saas -u <user> -p <pass> -sf "Chapter_Four"
Filter by lecture name:  coursera-dl saas -u <user> -p <pass> -lf "3.1_"
Download only ppt files: coursera-dl progfun-2012-001 -u <user> -p <pass> -f "ppt"
Use a ~/.netrc file:     coursera-dl progfun-2012-001 -n

The use of a ~/.netrc file is a good alternative to specifying both your username and password every time on the command line. To use it, simply add a line like the one below to a file named .netrc in your home directory (or the equivalent, if you are using Windows) with contents like:

machine coursera-dl login <user> password <pass>

Create the file if it doesn't exist yet. From then on, you can switch from using -u and -p to simply call coursera-dl with the option -n instead. This is especially convenient, as typing usernames and passwords directly on the command line can get tiresome (even more if you happened to choose a "strong" password).

Troubleshooting

• Make sure the classname you are using corresponds to the resource name used in the URL for that class: https://class.coursera.org/<CLASS_NAME>/class/index

• Previously one could export a Netscape-style cookies file with a browser extension (1, 2) for use with the -c option, but this approach does not appear to work with recent classes. Use the -u and -p flags instead or use the -n flag.

• If results show 0 sections, you most likely have provided invalid credentials (username and/or password in the command line or in your .netrc file).

Contact

Post bugs and issues on github. Send other comments to John Lehmann: first last at geemail dotcom or @jplehmann