Boost your career with 6 of the best online courses for 2020

With many of us spending more of our days indoors, it’s an ideal time to use some of those hours consumed by Netflix and social media to take an upskilling course that stimulates your brain.

The number of people searching for online courses has increased significantly since the pandemic outbreak in March, according to Google Trends.

In today’s ever-changing digital world, it’s more important than ever to upskill in order to further your career or business.

"It’s never wise to allow things to become stagnant, which is why it’s important for employers to provide ongoing training or opportunities to upskill to their staff," Careerforce CEO Jane Wenman told Education Central. "It doesn’t matter if you’re 25, 45 or 65, having an open mindset and being willing to learn is really important."

Here are some of the best online courses around the world.

Best online courses for upskilling

Harvard University

Course : Technology Entrepreneurship: Lab to Market
Benefit : Learn how entrepreneurs build businesses from lab to market.
Cost : Free (paid certificate optional)

The introductory course explores how universities, government labs and private companies invest billions of dollars into research to produce technology that transforms lives.

The five-week self-paced business course teaches participants how businesses align with operating models, how to secure funding and how to match customer needs with technology.

The University of Melbourne

Course : Professional Certificate in Applied Analytics
Benefit : Develop skills in analytics data
Cost : A$8,240

Suitable for those eager to improve processes, systems and outcomes in their workplace through data analysis, the course enriches and helps progress careers in analytics.

From learning how to derive key insights to understanding how to use data to make informed business decisions, the online course offers upskilling opportunities for those is education, psychology and urban sectors.

Stanford University

Course : Machine Learning
Benefit : Introduction to machine learning and statistical pattern recognition
Cost : from US$3,900

As computers become smarter, upskill your knowledge of machine learning. After all, technology is the future.

Robotic control, data mining, autonomous navigation and bioinformatics are just some of the applications that you may find beneficial from the course experience.

Yale University

Course : The Science of Well-Being
Benefit : Increase happiness and build productivity
Cost : Free via Coursera (paid certificate optional)

This 10-week course is available for free on Coursera, which has attracted more than one million new subscribers in the past few weeks.

Renowned for being one of the most popular online courses offered at Yale, it shares the misconceptions about happiness, annoying features of the mind and research to encourage change.

Princeton University

Course : Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies
Benefit : Understand the world of Bitcoin
Cost : Free via Coursera (paid certificate optional)

Understand everything there is to know about the cryptocurrency world with this Princeton online course.

Upon completion, students will have the conceptual foundation needed to engineer secure software that interacts with the Bitcoin network.

LinkedIn Learning

Course : JavaScript Essential Training
Benefit : Learn the scripting language of the internet
Cost : Free with LinkedIn Learning 30-day trial ($39.99/month thereafter)

Ideal for anyone who works with the web, this course covers the fundamentals of understanding JavaScript, a crucial element to upskilling and boosting your career.

Step by step, the online videos explain the core principles used in scripting from data types to functions.