Downloading your Notebook, Downloading your Workspace and Refreshing your Workspace

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There might be some instances where you want to download your notebooks or workspace, or refresh your workspace to start from scratch. This topic contains instructions for managing your lab notebooks. Some courses host them on different platforms, so please select the one applicable to the lab you’re working on.

  1. Coursera Labs
  2. Google Colab
  3. Vocareum / AWS Sagemaker

Coursera Labs

Our courses on Coursera either use a Jupyter Noteebok environment, which looks like this:

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Screenshot 2025-04-04 at 10.31.08 AM1262×696 221 KB

Or, they use a Jupyter Lab environment, which looks like this (there’s a panel on the left side):

Screenshot 2025-04-04 at 10.38.00 AM
Screenshot 2025-04-04 at 10.38.00 AM1268×475 74.4 KB

Note: Please make sure you know which environment is being used in the course you are taking, as the instructions below would vary.

Downloading your Notebook

In case you need to download your notebook for troubleshooting or running in your local environment, you can follow these simple steps:

Coursera Jupyter Notebook Environment

  1. From the Menu Bar of the notebook you are working on, click File → Save and Checkpoint (or File → Save Notebook) to first save your progress.
  2. Click File → Download as → Notebook (.ipynb) (or File → Download). This should start downloading the file into your local machine.

Coursera Jupyter Lab Environment

  1. First, make sure you have the notebook tab open. Second, click anywhere in the notebook.
  2. From the Menu Bar, click File → Save Notebook.
  3. In the left hand panel, right click on the notebook file you want to download, select Download. This should start downloading the file into your local machine.

Downloading your Workspace

In case you need to download your entire workspace or some files for troubleshooting, or running in your local environment, you can follow these simple steps:

  1. From the Menu Bar, click File → Save and Checkpoint (or, File → Save Notebook) to first save your progress.
  2. On the top right, click Lab Files , this will open a panel.
  3. Now, you can either download the entire workspace by clicking Download all files or you can select the files you want to download.

Note: The best way to download the supporting files for the notebook(s) is the Downloading your Workspace option.

Refreshing your Workspace

This will come in handy whenever you need to start from scratch, fetch the latest version of the assignment, or run into a 404 error.

Coursera Jupyter Notebook Environment

  1. Open the notebook from the classroom.
  2. After the notebook opens up, click File → Open...
  3. When your workspace opens, tick the check box before your notebook file. After it is selected, press Shutdown. The icon beside the filename should turn from green to gray.
  4. Tick the checkbox again and this time choose Rename and enter any filename other than the original. For example, C1_W1_Assignment.ipynb (original) → C1_W1_Assignment_v2.ipynb
  5. (Optional) Tick the checkbox of any other file that you want to get a fresh copy of (e.g. dataset files that you might have manipulated irreversibly). Then click Delete . You can also opt to Rename or Download each file individually in case you want to keep them before deleting.
  6. Click on the Help button on the top right of the page.
  7. Click the Get latest version button.
  8. Click the Update Lab button. The page will refresh and you should now see the latest version of the notebook.

Coursera Jupyter Lab Environment

  1. Open the notebook from the classroom.
  2. Once your workspace opens, in the left hand panel, right click on the notebook file and select Rename. Enter any filename other than the original. For example, C1_W1_Assignment.ipynb (original) → C1_W1_Assignment_v2.ipynb
  3. (Optional) For any other file that you want to get a fresh copy of (e.g. dataset files that you might have manipulated irreversibly), right click on it and select Delete . You can also opt to Rename or Download each file individually in case you want to keep them before deleting.
  4. Click on the Help button on the top right of the page.
  5. Click the Get latest version button.
  6. Click the Update Lab button. The page will refresh and you should now see the latest version of the notebook.

Google Colab

Downloading your Notebook

If clicking the assignment link goes to a URL starting with https://colab.research.google.com, you can download your notebook by simply clicking File → Download → Download.ipynb.


Vocareum / AWS Sagemaker

Downloading your Notebook

You can either right-click on the file in the File Explorer, or click File in the Menu Bar. Both should have a Download option:

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