Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Career & Money

Learning Is Not Just For The Classroom: Here, Online Courses To Take When In A Slump


Getting educated is a never-ending process



Most of us have been to school, but not all of us thrived in the classroom. If we're being honest, listening, taking notes and reading books just isn’t for everyone. The tough irony is that the learning process never actually finishes, no matter how many years it's been since you walked on stage to get your diploma. It doesn’t matter if you’re a manager, a big boss or a just starting out—there’s always something new to pick up.


Enter: online courses, the more personalized way to learn without the literal (and non-literal) confines of a classroom.



RELATED: 5 Inspiring Girl Bosses to Follow on Social Media


Personal Finance: Investing In Yourself

Finance is kind of a touchy subject and plenty of us feel like our high school and undergraduate studies did little to nothing to prepare us for the real world of money. We don’t know how to invest and what to invest our money on despite knowing how to balance an accounting sheet—and this is where edX’s Personal Finace: Investing In Yourself course comes in to fill the gap.


The 7-week course aims to teach its students how to invest in themselves and their futures. Investments are taken as an educational and to-be-trained concept, so the course is ready to lay the foundation on important economic tools. This way, those that complete the online course are able to determine whether or not their financial decisions are sound ones.


Cracking the Creativity Code: Discovering Ideas

Sometimes creativity just comes to us; other times it’s a long and dragging process to bring it out—but most of the time, our jobs depend on it. We’re constantly required to think outside the box and innovate and get our customers to interact with us. But how can we possible keep doing that without getting feeling a little burnt out?


Cracking the Creativity Code: Discovering Ideas from Coursera teaches its participants to treat the discovery of new ideas as a skill instead of something that they fortunately walk into. “Creativity is an acquired skill,” the course description describes, “[and it is] one that improves with practice.” Filling the 4-week timeline are frameworks and tools that give participants ways to hone their discovery-generating ideas.



Duolingo

Learning a new language need not be intimidating, thanks to everyone’s favorite multi-lingual buddy, Duolingo. Available for download on iOS and Android devices, you can take its lessons and activities quite literally wherever you go. It doesn’t matter if you’re starting out fresh or need a little refreshing from high school or college, you'll find the pacing will suit you just fine. 


Soon enough you’ll go on a vacation without having to speak to the locals in gestures and over-simplified English.



What Is Social?

Another one from Coursera, What Is Social?, teaches business owners, officers and marketing professionals how to positively grow and strengthen their online presence and social strategy. Described as a “hands on” experience, reality meets the classroom as participants learn through the use of their actual social media accounts.


If you like the very first leg, you can continue on to finish all six courses in the specialization. The latter chapters not only touch on increasing numbers on your follower count, but also teach you how to potentially make money from it.


Mastering Data Analysis In Excel

There once was a time when we hated our teachers and professors who wouldn’t let us use calculators—especially since the real world had them. But what’s the difference if we can’t use basic things such as Microsoft Excel?


More technically, this course, which boasts flexible deadlines, teaches participants to design and implement realistic predictive models based on data. So if you're looking for a simple how-to-use, this actually isn't for you. But if data manipulation is important to you (or is of interest to you), then you've come to the right place. 



RELATED: 6 Time Wasters at Work You Need to Drop ASAP


The best parts about online courses is that anyone can take it and there is a variety out there to choose from. Whether you want to up your sales game, learn how to read people better or need to touch up your finance skills, there’s always something to sign up for.



Words Adie Pieraz

Art Alex Lara

Vibe check! How does this make you feel?

Recommended Articles

Top