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The 12 Most Popular Free Online Courses For Professionals

MAGGIE ZHANG 9 JUL 8, 2014, 11.47 PM

Want to gain an edge in your working life? Learning new skills online doesn't cost

you anything but time.

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Based on data from online education platform Coursera, we compiled a list of the

12 most popular, free online classes for working professionals.

Here they are, ranked by popularity:

1. Wesleyan University's "Social Psychology"

Coursera's most popular course offers an introduction to classic and

contemporary social psychology, covering topics such as decision making,

persuasion, group behavior, personal attraction, and factors that promote health

and well-being.

Starts July 14

2. University of Maryland's "Programming Mobile

Applications for Android Handheld Systems"

This is an introduction to the design and implementation of applications for

handheld systems, such as smartphones and tablets, running the Android

platform. It is part of a larger sequence of specialization courses called Mobile

Cloud Computing with Android.

Starts September 26

3. Duke University's "Think Again: How to Reason and

Argue"

This course will teach you how to reason well. You will learn how to understand

and assess arguments by other people and how to construct persuasive arguments

of your own.

Starts August 25

4. Duke University's "A Beginner's Guide to Irrational

Behavior"

In this course, you will learn why we don't always behave rationally, and how we

might overcome our shortcomings. You'll also learn about cases where our

irrationalities work in our favor, and how we can harness these human tendencies

to make better decisions.

Start date TBD

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5. University of Toronto's "Learn to Program: The

Fundamentals"

This course introduces the fundamental building blocks of programming and

teaches you how to write fun and useful programs using the Python language.

Start date TBD

6. Stanford University's "Startup Engineering"

This course will help you bridge the gap between academic computer science and

production software engineering. It's a fast-paced introduction to key tools and

techniques, featuring guest appearances by senior engineers from successful

startups and large-scale academic projects.

Start date TBD

7. Yale University's "Financial Markets"

You'll gain an understanding of the theory of finance and its relation to the

history, strengths, and imperfections of banking, insurance, securities, futures,

and other derivatives markets, as well as the future of these institutions over the

next century.

Start date TBD

8. The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School's "An

Introduction to Financial Accounting"

This course will improve your fluency in financial accounting. You will learn how

to read, understand, and analyze most of the information provided by companies

in their financial statements.

Starts September 5

9. University of Washington's "Introduction to Public

Speaking"

In this class, you will study the principles of public speaking and critically

examine your own and others' speeches through interactive practice. By the end,

you'll understand the process of writing, practicing, and presenting a clear and

engaging speech.

Start date TBD

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10. University of Michigan's "Introduction to Finance"

This course primarily focuses on the fundamental principles of valuation and how

to apply the concepts of the time value of money and risk to understand the major

determinants of value creation.

Starts October 6

11. The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School's "An

Introduction to Marketing"

This course will teach the fundamentals of marketing by getting to the root of

customer decision making. It will focus on branding strategies, customer

centricity, and new market entry.

Start date TBD

12. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's

"Data Analysis"

Through this applied statistics course, you will learn about the most effective data

analysis methods to solve problems and achieve insight. You will cover some of

the most popular and widely used statistical methods like linear regression,

principal components analysis, cross-validation, and p-values.

Start date TBD