Google Cloud Coursera Professional Certificates - Name Change

[JasonPaul]

Hi, was hoping to get an answer from somone at Google Cloud who handles the training content that is posted on Coursera.  Coursera is basically pushing the question to Google, saying the instructors are responsible for the change, and they don't have any information.

I completed the Cloud Engineering with Google Cloud Professional Certificate in March 2021.  I just checked the link to the certificate hosted on Coursera, and I noticed that the certificate name has been retroactively changed to Preparing for Google Cloud Certification:  Cloud Engineer.  The course is now advertised as the same, but the URL for the course has not changed.

Are there any details on the reason for the change of the name of the Professional Certificate?  The new name seems to cheapen the professional certificate as it makes it sound like it’s only a prep course for an Associate Cloud Engineer GCP certification, rather than a standalone Professional Certificate. 

The same changes have been made to other Google Cloud courses on Coursera, as can be seen here.

I’m pretty disappointed in the name change done after the fact on my certificate, as I was proud of this accomplishment.   More information on this would be appreciated.

[Jessica_CM]

Hello @JasonPaul,

Thanks for joining our Community. I have moved your post to the Learning Forum, since this location is more suitable for your question.

[michael]

Hey @JasonPaul!

Thanks so much for your feedback. I can understand your experience having the title of your certificate retroactively changed. We're working hard to ensure our learning resources, certificates, and certifications have clear and standardized language. While I'm not certain about this one in particular, I am going to circle back with the appropriate team and follow back up with you to provide some more insight. 

Thank you for sharing your experience! 

[michael]

Hi again, @JasonPaul

I've connected with our team on this:

As we continue to increase our content options and availability with our on-demand partners, we make changes to align these with our growing portfolio. In this specific case, the Professional Certificates support individuals' job readiness to explore careers with Google Cloud and in their preparation towards formal cloud certification and hence the name change to be clearer.

We really do appreciate your feedback - please continue to leverage the community to access more learning on Google Cloud! 

[ChristianNM]

Hi Michael, 

I am writing to express my frustration and disappointment on this issue. I had successfully completed the specialization SRE and DevOps Engineering with Google cloud professional certificate. 
This was about a year or so ago. And today as I was looking at my LinkedIn and decided to click on the link, I was shocked to realize that the name had been changed without so much as an email, it was cheapen to something called preparing for so on and so forth.

I must let you know that I passed the cloud Architect professional certification and the Data engineer professional certification, I passed the two test prior to taking the Coursera specialization. 
I kindly ask that the name be reinstated to what it was when I took the specialization. 
To me this is rather unfair and  disingenuous practice to everyone that put in their hard work to complete all the courses. 
If you are unable to sort this issue out, I ask that you please forward this message to the department in charge of changing the names. I will very much like a solution to this issue. Since for me it’s a total of 3 specializations that have had their name cheapen and rendered worthless. 

sincerely,

christian

[JasonPaul]

What's in a name?  🌹

Thanks for looking into this Michael.  I do appreciate that.

As feedback, I'm not happy with the change being adjusted retroactively to my Professional Certificate.  That seems pretty dishonest, even if that wasn't the intention.

The name change going forward makes me less likely to go through the Coursera courses, as a "Professional Certificate" that declares itself "Preparation" for certification is less valuable to me than how they were named previously.  Content-wise I enjoyed the courses I took, but I found I needed additional resources to feel ready to take the certification.  I'm still working on other  completing other resources, but I do intend to take the Associate Cloud Engineer exam when I feel ready.