Personal development is a lifelong journey of self-improvement and growth, and one of the most effective ways to embark on this transformative path is through structured learning.
Fortunately, in today’s digital age, there is a wealth of free personal development courses available to help individuals enhance their skills, expand their horizons, and achieve their personal and professional goals. In this article, we will explore a curated selection of the best free personal development courses available online.
These courses cover a wide range of topics, from improving emotional intelligence and boosting productivity to building self-confidence and mastering time management.
So, if you’re eager to invest in your personal growth without breaking the bank, read on to discover the top free personal development courses that can set you on a path to self-improvement and success.
Best Free Personal Development courses
In the realm of personal development, knowledge is a powerful catalyst for growth, and free personal development courses offer an accessible gateway to self-improvement.
These courses, available online, cover a myriad of topics designed to enhance various aspects of one’s life, from communication skills and mindfulness to goal-setting and leadership development.
Whether you’re seeking to boost your career, enrich your personal relationships, or simply become the best version of yourself, these free courses provide a valuable opportunity to embark on a journey of self-discovery and growth without any financial burden.
List of Best Free Personal Development courses
- The Science of Well-Being by Yale University (Coursera)
- Learning How to Learn by the McMaster University and the University of California (Coursera)
- Free Course Trial – Achieving Personal and Professional Success by Wharton School (Coursera)
- Dynamic Public Speaking Specialization by the University of Washington (Coursera)
- Race and Cultural Diversity in American Life and History by the University of Illinois (Coursera)
- Free Course Trial – Good with Words: Writing and Editing Specialization by the University of Michigan (Coursera)
- Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most by the University of Michigan (Coursera)
- Free Course Trial – Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success by Imperial College London (Coursera)
- Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential by the McMaster University (Coursera)
- The Arts and Science of Relationships: Understanding Human Needs by the University of Toronto (Coursera)
Best Free Personal Development courses
The following list comprises a selection of well regarded free personal development courses.This topic is appropriate for persons who own a vested interest.
1. The Science of Well-Being by Yale University (Coursera)
This course aims to foster student engagement in a sequence of tasks that are specifically tailored to enhance their subjective well-being and cultivate more effective behavioural patterns.
The course aims to challenge prevailing myths about happiness, shed light on cognitive patterns that influence our thought processes, and present research findings that have the potential to facilitate personal transformation.
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 of Course: 19 hours
Overall Rating by Students: 4.9 out of 5
2. Learning How to Learn by the McMaster University and the University of California (Coursera)
Throughout this course, students will be exposed to several cognitive frameworks and will acquire the necessary skills to effectively utilise them in order to enhance their learning abilities. One will gain comprehension of how the brain organises and consolidates information into discrete units known as chunks.
Acquiring this knowledge will facilitate the enhancement of one’s comprehension and inventiveness, as well as yield improved performance on assessments.
The course subsequently delves into the topics of procrastination and memory, exploring optimal strategies for harnessing the cognitive capabilities of the brain’s long-term memory systems.
Finally, it imparts significant concepts and methodologies to augment one’s capacity for acquiring knowledge.
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 of Course: 15 hours
Overall Rating by Students: 4.8 out of 5
3. Free Course Trial – Achieving Personal and Professional Success by Wharton School (Coursera)
This specialisation provides an introduction to the tools and approaches utilised in defining and attaining success in both personal and professional domains.
In the initial course, titled “Success,” students will engage in the process of defining their personal understanding of success and formulating a comprehensive strategy to attain it.
The subsequent course, “Enhancing Communication Proficiency,” imparts knowledge and techniques for enhancing one’s ability to communicate with greater efficacy and accomplish desired objectives.
The third course, titled “Leading the Life You Want,” provides individuals with the necessary abilities to effectively lead in various domains, including the workplace, home, community, and personal life.
In the fourth course, titled “Influence,” participants will acquire knowledge and skills pertaining to the cultivation of influence, hence enhancing their efficacy in attaining organisational objectives. Please review our curated selection of top 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 of Course: 4 months
Overall Rating by Students: 4.7 out of 5
4. Dynamic Public Speaking Specialization by the University of Washington (Coursera)
This specialisation offers individuals the chance to develop exceptional public speaking skills. This programme offers individuals the necessary guidance, practical exposure, and opportunities to enhance their skills in creating and delivering persuasive presentations.
The initial course, known as “Introduction to Public Speaking,” provides students with a dependable framework for the development and execution of impactful presentations.
The course “Speaking to Inform: Exploring Complex Ideas through Clear Explanations and Dynamic Slides” aims to enhance participants’ ability to effectively communicate intricate topics by employing vivid explanations, designing engaging presentation slides, and delivering dynamic speeches with the use of notes.
Delivering a persuasive speech: This course focuses on the development of persuasive speeches that effectively engage audiences via the use of compelling ideas and impactful language. It provides instruction on designing speeches that effectively address problems, propose solutions, and ultimately encourage audience members.
The book titled “Speaking to Inspire: Ceremonial and Motivational Speeches” provides a systematic approach to effectively prepare and deliver speeches that are both inspiring and engaging. It is recommended that you peruse our compilation of top-rated 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 of Course: Variable
Overall Rating by Students: 4.7 out of 5
5. Race and Cultural Diversity in American Life and History by the University of Illinois (Coursera)
This course provides a comprehensive examination of the concepts of race and cultural diversity in the historical and contemporary context of the United States.
In order to comprehend the significance of race and ethnicity within the context of American society, an examination is conducted on the many ethnocultural traditions, hence exploring the complexities associated with these concepts.
The influence of race, ethnicity, and cultural variety on America’s institutions, law, and social connections is a topic that warrants appreciation.
The course encompasses a range of subjects, including the Concepts of Race and Identity, the Legacies of Race in the United States, the Legacies of Race and Racism in contemporary society, and the examination of Race and Ethnicity within American Social Institutions.
Highlights
- The course examines the historical and social relationships between Americans and other races and ethnicities.
- The University of Michigan 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 of Course: 8 hours
Overall Rating by Students: 4.6 out of 5
6. Free Course Trial – Good with Words: Writing and Editing Specialization by the University of Michigan (Coursera)
This course encompasses the principles and tactics involved in proficient communication, with a specific focus on the written component of communication.
This comprehensive course covers a wide range of essential skills, including effectively organizing intricate information in a manner that is easily comprehensible to readers, as well as providing and receiving constructive comments of superior quality.
This resource presents innovative approaches to employing syntax, reveals strategies for incorporating subtlety into one’s sentences and slogans, offers guidance on punctuating with expertise, and imparts knowledge on the necessary habits to develop in order to efficiently accomplish both immediate and long-term projects within specified deadlines.
One may also peruse our assortment of the most exceptional courses on spiritual healing.
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 of Course: Variable
Overall Rating by Students: 4.7 out of 5
7. Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most by the University of Michigan (Coursera)
This course explores the disciplines of science and philosophy, as well as the practical application of discovering one’s purpose and leading a purpose-driven existence.
Narratives chronicling the expeditions undertaken by prominent historical personalities and individuals possess the potential to serve as instructive sources, aiding individuals in their quest to discover and lead a life imbued with meaning and intentionality.
The course material will provide an in-depth comprehension of the notion that possessing a robust life purpose is a fundamental component of human welfare. The material provided herein will assist individuals in formulating a life purpose and maintaining a consistent connection with this purpose on a daily basis.
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.
8. Free Course Trial – Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success by Imperial College London (Coursera)
This course aims to equip students with a comprehensive set of skills and strategies necessary for fostering creative thinking and effectively communicating novel ideas within a dynamic and information-saturated context.
This course aims to familiarise participants with a curated collection of behaviours and strategies that can be employed to effectively manifest their inherent creativity.
Certain technologies demonstrate effectiveness when utilised within a group setting, facilitating the ability to harness the collective creative capacities of multiple individuals.
The training will additionally provide guidance in the selection of appropriate tools or procedures based on individual requirements. Please remember to review our compilation of top-rated courses on creative thinking.
Highlights
- The course comes with e-tivities, 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 of Course: 24 hours
Overall Rating by Students: 4.7 out of 5
9. Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential by the McMaster University (Coursera)
Mindshift aims to enhance one’s professional trajectory within the context of the contemporary, rapidly evolving educational landscape.
This article aims to provide valuable ideas on optimising online learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), effectively utilising virtual platforms for mentorship, and navigating career stagnation.
This resource provides empirically supported strategies for enhancing learning and facilitating effective personal transformation. The training fosters an understanding of one’s societal position and promotes the pursuit of personal aspirations, despite the presence of practical limitations.
By engaging in this learning experience, individuals will acquire cognitive strategies and profound understandings that will significantly enhance their capacity to acquire knowledge and accomplish tasks beyond their previous capabilities.
The course has four sections, namely “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 of Course: 10 hours
Overall Rating by Students: 4.8 out of 5
10. The Arts and Science of Relationships: Understanding Human Needs by the University of Toronto (Coursera)
This course provides an introduction to the essential concepts of the Strategies and Skills Learning and Development System (SSLD). This study demonstrates the practical applicability of these concepts in interpersonal relationships.
Subsequently, the text proceeds to elucidate the sophisticated principles that are relevant to the domains of social work and healthcare.
The examination of case studies pertaining to relationship management brings attention to the fundamental ideas and methodologies of Strategic Stakeholder Relationship Management (SSLD).
The training encompasses all key proficiencies within the relationship management application of the SSLD system, including observation learning, simulation, real-life implementation, review, and monitoring.
In addition, the SSLD framework for relationship management assessment, N3C, and problem translation will be covered in the course. Please review our curated selection of top-rated courses in people management.
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 of Course: 32 hours
Overall Rating by Students: 4.5 out of 5
Wrapping up
The availability of the best free personal development courses online is a testament to the growing recognition of the importance of self-improvement in today’s fast-paced world.
These courses empower individuals to take charge of their personal and professional growth, offering valuable insights, practical skills, and transformative knowledge at no cost.
Whether you’re looking to enhance your emotional intelligence, acquire new skills, or foster a more fulfilling life, these resources provide an invaluable starting point.
The power to shape your future and become the best version of yourself is now within reach, thanks to these free personal development courses. So, seize the opportunity, invest in your personal growth, and embark on a journey of self-discovery that can lead to a more fulfilling and successful life.