The 12 Most Popular Free Online Courses For Professionals

Want to gain an edge in your working life? Learning new skills online doesn't cost you anything but time.

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

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

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

Reference: http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7