20 Free Business MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) That Will Advance Your Career

Art, philosophy, literature and history–that’s mainly what we discuss around here. We’re about enriching the mind. But we’re not opposed to helping you enrich yourself in a more literal way too.

Recently, Business Insider Italy asked us to review our longer list of 1600 MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and create a short list of 20 courses that can help you advance your career. And, with the help of Coursera and edX, the two top MOOC providers, we whittled things down to the following list.

Above, you’ll find the introductory video for Design Thinking for Innovation, a course from the University of Virginia. Other courses come from such top institutions as Yale, MIT, the University of Michigan and Columbia University. Topics include everything from business fundamentals, to negotiation and decision making, to corporate finance, strategy, marketing and accounting.

One tip to keep in mind. If you want to take a course for free, select the “Full Course, No Certificate” or “Audit” option when you enroll. If you would like an official certificate documenting that you have successfully completed the course, you will need to pay a fee. Here’s the list:

• Business Foundations – University of British Columbia
• Influencing People – University of Michigan
• Introduction to Negotiation: A Strategic Playbook for Becoming a Principled and Persuasive Negotiator – Yale University
• Selling Ideas: How to Influence Others, and Get Your Message to Catch On – University of Pennsylvania/Wharton Business School
• Effective Problem Solving and Decision Making – University of California-Irvine
• Design Thinking for Innovation – University of Virginia
• Project Management: The Basics for Success – University of California-Irvine
• Work Smarter, Not Harder: Time Management for Personal & Professional Productivity – University of California-Irvine
• Becoming an Entrepreneur – MIT
• Competitive Strategy – Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)
• Financial Markets – Yale University (taught by Nobel Prize Winning Economist Robert Shiller)
• Finance for Non-Financial Professionals – University of California-Irvine
• Introduction to Corporate Finance – University of Pennsylvania/Wharton Business School
• Introduction to Financial Accounting – University of Pennsylvania/Wharton Business School
• Introduction to Marketing – University of Pennsylvania/Wharton Business School
• Managing the Value of Customer Relationships – University of Pennsylvania/Wharton Business School
• Marketing in a Digital World – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Analytics in Python – Columbia University
• Introduction to User Experience – University of Michigan
• Data Science Essentials – MIT & Microsoft

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