10 Best + Free Personal Development Courses [Wharton | Yale | Michigan] [2024 March] (2024)

The quest for self-improvement and personal growth is a universal endeavor, yet one that often lacks a structured educational pathway. In today’s fast-paced world, personal development isn’t just a luxury; it’s necessary for anyone looking to excel in their professional journey, improve interpersonal relationships, or even find more fulfillment in everyday life. Embarking on a well-designed Personal Development Course can be your key to unlocking a host of skills—from time management and emotional intelligence to leadership capabilities. A quality course in this domain can provide the tools to overcome personal barriers and realize your full potential, setting you on a path toward personal and professional excellence.

Given theextensivelandscape of online courses claiming to offer groundbreaking insights into personal development, making an informed choice can be arduous. This is where DigitalDefynd comes into play as a foremost resource in the field of educational program curation. We’ve committed several hours to rigorously analyzing and evaluating hundreds of online personal development courses. Factors such as pedagogical effectiveness, real-world applicability, and learner reviews have been closely scrutinized. The outcome is a list of the Best and Free Personal Development Courses tailored to various needs and learning styles. As you explore this curated collection, think of it as a blueprint for your growth journey, designed by experts who have done the heavy lifting to ensure access to the most impactful and transformative educational resources.

Best + Free Personal Development Courses, Classes & Certification Online [2024 March]

Free Course Trial – The Science of Well-Being by Yale University (Coursera)

This course encourages students to participate in a series of challenges designed to increase their happiness and build more productive habits. The course attempts to debunk misconceptions about happiness, throws light on the mind’s habits that make us think the way we do and share research findings can help us change.

Highlights-

– This course is offered by Yale University.

– The course content includes video lectures, reading material, and quizzes.

– The course culminates in the final assignment.

– After clearing the lesson end quizzes and final assignment, you can pay a small fee and receive the course certificate.

– You can add the course certificate to your LinkedIn profile and resume and share it with your employers and peers.

Duration: 19 hours

Rating: 4.9 out of 5

You Can Sign up Here

Review: This is an outstanding course! I was able to change into a more positive and productive mindset, as taught in this course. I highly recommend it to everyone regardless of your profession or background. – SN.

Free Course Trial – Learning How to Learn by the McMaster University and the University of California (Coursera)

In this course, you will discover different modes of thinking and learn to use them to improve your learning. You will understand how the brain encapsulates information into chunks. This knowledge will help you improve your understanding and creativity, and to do better on tests. The course then talks about procrastination and memory, and the best ways to access your brain’s most powerful long term memory systems. Lastly, it shares important ideas and techniques to enhance your ability to learn.

Highlights-

– With the help of the content in the course, you can change your thinking and change your life.

– Every module of this course is followed by a quiz to help you assess your learning.

– After going through the course completely and finishing the quizzes, you can pay and a small fee and receive the course certificate.

– You can add the course certificate to your LinkedIn profile and resume.

Duration: 15 hours

Rating: 4.8 out of 5

You Can Sign up Here

Review: I found this course incredibly useful and practical. It has not only helped me better understand the process of learning, but it has also given me valuable tools in how to optimize my learning process. – EB.

Free Course Trial – Achieving Personal and Professional Success by Wharton School (Coursera)

This specialization introduces the tools and techniques for defining and achieving success at home and at work. In the first course, Success, you will define what success means to you and develop a plan for achieving it. The second course, Improving Communication Skills, teaches you how to communicate more effectively and achieve your goals. The third course, Leading the Life You Want, equips you with skills you need to lead at work, home, in the community, and your private self. In the fourth course, Influence, you will learn how to develop influence and become more effective in achieving your organizational goals. Check our curation of Best Communication Skills Courses.

Highlights-

– The course content includes video lectures, exercises, self-diagnostic surveys, quizzes, and many case studies.

– The course provides key insights into successful personal practices that can be applied at home and work for best results.

– The courses and the specialization come with certificates.

– You can share the certificate with your employers and peer through your LinkedIn profile and printed resume.

Duration: 4 months

Rating: 4.7 out of 5

You Can Sign up Here

Review: This Influence course takes a different approach, and while it takes a while to appreciate, I ended up really liking it! I won’t spoil the surprises, but nevertheless, this is a course not to miss! – MW.

Related: How to Upskill

Free Course Trial – Dynamic Public Speaking Specialization by the University of Washington (Coursera)

This specialization is your opportunity to become an excellent public speaker. It provides you with the instruction, experience, and practice to develop and deliver compelling presentations. The first course, Introduction to Public Speaking, gives you a reliable model for preparing and delivering effective presentations. In Speaking to inform: Discussing complex ideas with clear explanations and dynamic slides, you will learn how to explain complex concepts vividly, design compelling presentation slides, and speak dynamically from notes. Speaking to persuade: Motivating audiences with solid arguments and moving language teaches how to design persuasive speeches that address problems and solutions and motivate audience members. Speaking to Inspire: Ceremonial and Motivational Speeches gives you a method for preparing and delivering speeches that inspire and entertain. You may want to have a look at our list of Best Public Speaking Courses.

Highlights-

– The specialization draws from the established knowledge in communication, rhetoric, linguistics, and argumentation.

– This specialization is useful to speakers at all levels.

– The specialization covers techniques for designing and delivering clear and compelling presentations.

– This specialization comes with a shareable certificate.

Duration: Variable

Rating: 4.7 out of 5

You Can Sign up Here

Race and Cultural Diversity in American Life and History by the University of Illinois (Coursera)

This course presents an overview of the ideology of race and cultural diversity in America’s past and present. To understand the meaning of race and ethnicity in American life, it examines the issues of race and ethnicity across different ethnocultural traditions. You will appreciate how race, ethnicity, and cultural diversity have influenced America’s institutions, law, and social relationships. The topics discussed in the course are Concepts of Race and Identity, Legacies of Race in the US, Legacies of Race and Racism Today, and Race and Ethnicity in American Social Institutions.

Highlights-

– The course examines the historical and social relationships between Americans and other races and ethnicities.

– The University of Illinois offers this course.

– The course content includes video lectures, reading material, and quizzes.

– You can earn a shareable certificate for this course by completing the quizzes and paying a small fee.

– You can share the certificate with your employers by adding it to your digital profile and printed resume.

Duration: 8 hours

Rating: 4.6 out of 5

You Can Sign up Here

Review: The topics were good, and the professor clearly knows his subject. The final paper took more time than expected, but overall I felt like I came away with more knowledge on the subject. – BW.

Free Course Trial – Good with Words: Writing and Editing Specialization by the University of Michigan (Coursera)

This course covers the mechanics and strategy of effective communication, particularly the writing part of communication. It teaches everything you should know, from arranging a complex set of information in a reader-friendly way, to giving and receiving high-quality feedback. It introduces creative ways to use syntax, uncovers techniques for adding nuance to your sentences and slogans, shares tips for punctuating like professionals and teaches about habits you need to cultivate to complete short-term and long-term projects on time effectively.

Highlights-

– This specialization has four courses – Word choice and word order, Structure and Organization, Drafting, and Revising.

– The four courses and the specialization too come with certificates.

– After completing the quizzes at the end of the course modules, you can pay a small fee and receive the shareable certificate(s).

– You can add the certificate (s) to your LinkedIn profile or primed resume to get better opportunities at work.

Duration: Variable

Rating: 4.7 out of 5

You Can Sign up Here

Review: Excellent and inspiring and at the same time, very informative and beneficial. Great teacher. Beautifully presented and organized. – DS.

Related: Upskilling Challenges Faced by Corporates

Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most by the University of Michigan (Coursera)

This course talks about science, philosophy, and the practice of finding your purpose and living a purposeful life. Stories from journeys of historical figures and individuals will guide you in finding and living a purposeful life. The course content will give you an understanding that having a strong purpose in life is an essential element of human well-being. The information you get here will help you create a purpose for your life and stay connected to that purpose every day.

Highlights-

– This course walks through different exercises to help you find out what matters most to you.

– The video lectures, reading assignments, and exercises in the course will make you realize that self-transcending purpose positively affects the well-being.

– You will get complimentary access, for a period of time, to the Purposeful App.

– After taking quizzes at the end of the course modules, you can opt to pay a small fee and receive a course certificate.

– The certificate is shareable via your digital profile and resume.

Duration: 7 hours

Rating: 4.8 out of 5

You Can Sign up Here

Review: Short and precise course to get some perspective on finding focus on things that really matter. Vic is an excellent professor who just connects so well with the students even from the computer screen. – SS

Free Course Trial – Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success by Imperial College London (Coursera)

This course will arm you with a ‘toolbox’ you need to think creatively and communicate the new ideas engagingly, in an environment that is fast-paced and marked by information overload. It will introduce you to a selected set of behaviors and techniques to bring forth your innate creativity. Some of the tools work well in a group set up, empowering you to tap into several best minds’ creativity. The course will also guide you in choosing the right tools or techniques for your needs on hand. Don’t forget to check our list of Best Creative Thinking Courses.

Highlights-

– The course comes with e-activities, exercises, practical lectures, tips, and video.

– Representations of the techniques in action.

– The course teaches how to use alphabet brainstorming and grid brainstorming in tackling a challenge.

– You will master the morphological chart used to synthesize a solution to a challenge.

– You will understand how a TRIZ contradiction matrix can help identify recommended inventive principles.

– You will start applying SCAMPER to a range of challenges.

– You can pay the fee and receive a course certificate for this course.

Duration: 24 hours

Rating: 4.7 out of 5

You Can Sign up Here

Review: This course was really amazing. I enjoyed a lot and learned as well! This course helped me to enhance my creativity…. Thanks to Prof. Peter for his amazing lectures with illustrated examples! – SX.

Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential by the McMaster University (Coursera)

Mindshift aims to help boost your career in the backdrop of today’s fast-paced learning environment. It will give you insights into how to make the most out of online learning and MOOCs, work with mentors through virtual platforms, and avoid career ruts. It shares practical tips that are backed by science on how to learn and change effectively. The course makes you aware of your place in society and encourages you to be what you want to be, overcoming real-life constraints. You will pick up mental tools and insights that will help you learn and do much more than ever before. The four modules discussed in the course are Change Possible, Getting Deeper into Happy Learning, Learning, and Careers, and Adopting a Learning Style.

Highlights-

– The course content includes video lectures, practice exercises, reading material, and quizzes.

– After taking all the quizzes, you can opt to receive a course certificate by paying a small fee.

– You can improve your career prospects by adding the shareable certificate to your LinkedIn profile and printed resume.

Duration: 10 hours

Rating: 4.8 out of 5

You Can Sign up Here

Review: I enjoyed this course very much. I am 64-years-old, and this course taught me that you can learn anything new no matter what age you are. I am now broadening my passions and learning is a lot more fun. – EC

Related: Marketable Skills to Learn and Develop

The Arts and Science of Relationships: Understanding Human Needs by the University of Toronto (Coursera)

This course introduces you to the fundamental concepts of the Strategies and Skills Learning and Development System (SSLD). It shows you how they are relevant to everyday relationships. It then proceeds to explain the advanced concepts pertinent to social work and health care fields. Discussions on relationship management case studies highlight the underlying practice principles and methods of SSLD. All core competencies in the relationship management application of the SSLD system, such as observation learning, simulation, real-life implementation, review, and monitoring, are covered in the course. You will also learn about the SSLD framework for relationship management assessment, N3C, and problem translation. Take a look at our compilation of Best People Management Courses.

Highlights-

– The course is built around concepts of Strategies & Skills Learning & Development.

– Every lesson is followed by reading material and quizzes to help you enhance your learning.

– After finishing the quizzes at the end of each lesson, you can pay a small fee to receive a course certificate.

– The course certificate is shareable via LinkedIn profile and printed resume.

Duration: 32 hours

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

You Can Sign up Here

Review: This course manages to be information-packed and interesting at the same time. Professor Tsang and his team engage the learner in a conversation-like format in each lecture that is just the length! – JK.

DigitalDefynd is committed to enhancing individual growth and career advancement through our handpicked Personal Development courses. We recognize the crucial role that ongoing education and self-enhancement play in both personal and professional spheres. Our selection is aimed at equipping you with essential skills in time management, communication, leadership, and emotional intelligence. In partnership with renowned educational providers, we offer courses that combine insightful theoretical foundations with actionable strategies for life. As your partner in personal growth, DigitalDefynd invites you to delve into courses designed to boost your professional skills and personal wellbeing. Embark on a transformative journey with us, unlocking your potential and enriching your life in multifaceted ways.