Great professionals are always learning – it’s what makes them great. But the challenge for many professionals isn’t getting motivated to learn, but instead choosing what skill to learn.
There are a few different paths you can take to answer that question. You can look at what skills are the most sought-after by organizations. You can look at the fastest growing skills at top companies. Or, you can look at the skills professionals are learning the most.
This article is centered on that last point. It is a list of the 20 LinkedIn Learning courses professionals viewed the most over the past year, a testament to both the need for that skill and the effectiveness of the course:
1. Excel 2016 Essential Training
Instructor: Dennis Taylor
Course Description: Start mastering Excel, the world's most popular and powerful spreadsheet program, with Excel expert Dennis Taylor. Learn how to best enter and organize data, perform calculations with simple functions, work with multiple worksheets, format the appearance of your data and cells, and build charts and PivotTables. Other lessons cover the powerful IF, VLOOKUP, and COUNTIF family of functions; the Goal Seek, Solver, and other data analysis tools; and automating tasks with macros.
2. Project Management Foundations
Instructor: Bonnie Biafore
Course Description: Bonnie Biafore has always been fascinated by how things work and how to make things work better. In this course, she explains the fundamentals of project management, from defining the problem, establishing project goals and objectives, and building a project plan to managing team resources, meeting deadlines, and closing the project. Along the way, she provides tips for reporting on project performance, keeping a project on track, and gaining customer acceptance.
3. Programming Foundations: Fundamentals
Instructor: Simon Allardice
Course Description: This course provides the core knowledge to begin programming in any language. Simon Allardice uses JavaScript to explore the core syntax of a programming language, and shows how to write and execute your first application and understand what's going on under the hood. The course covers creating small programs to explore conditions, loops, variables, and expressions; working with different kinds of data and seeing how they affect memory; writing modular code; and how to debug, all using different approaches to constructing software applications. Finally, the course compares how code is written in several different languages, the libraries and frameworks that have grown around them, and the reasons to choose each one.
4. Cert Prep: Project Management Professional (PMP)®
Instructor: Sandra Mitchell
Course Description: This certification training course teaches critical project management concepts from the exam and offers study guides and sample practice exams to hone your test-taking skills. This course also fulfills the 35-hour education requirement needed to sit for the exam and provides 35 PDUs for current PMPs who need the credit to maintain their certification.
Sandy covers the major ideas from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and walks you through the project lifecycle. She also goes over material that is not covered in the guide-pointing out what is most likely to be featured on the exam and what you should try to commit to memory.
5. JavaScript Essential Training
Instructor: Morten Rand-Hendriksen
Course Description: JavaScript is a scripting language of the web. As the web evolves from a static to a dynamic environment, technology focus is shifting from static markup and styling—frequently handled by content management systems or automated scripts—to dynamic interfaces and advanced interaction. Once seen as optional, JavaScript is now becoming an integral part of the web, infusing every layer with its script.
Through practical examples and mini-projects, this course helps you build your understanding of JavaScript piece by piece, from core principles like variables, data types, conditionals, and functions through advanced topics including loops, closures, and DOM scripting. Along the way, you will also be introduced to some ES6 and the basics of JavaScript libraries.
6. Python Essential Training
Instructor: Bill Weinman
Course Description: Due to its power and simplicity, Python has become the scripting language of choice for many large organizations, including Google, Yahoo, and IBM. A thorough understanding of Python 3, the latest version, will help you write more efficient and effective scripts. In this course, Bill Weinman demonstrates how to use Python 3 to create well-designed scripts and maintain existing projects. This course covers the basics of the language syntax and usage, as well as advanced features such as objects, generators, and exceptions. Learn how types and values are related to objects; how to use control statements, loops, and functions; and how to work with generators and decorators. Bill also introduces the Python module system and shows examples of Python scripting at work in a real-world application.
7. Body Language for Leaders
Instructor: Carol Kinsey Goman
Course Description: Research shows that when your verbal and nonverbal signals are out of alignment, people are forced to choose between what they hear and what they see. And subconsciously, they'll believe your body language. In this course, workplace body-language expert Carol Kinsey Goman, PhD, reveals how body language is perceived and often misread, and shares the six nonverbal signals you need to know to make a positive first impression. She also discusses the importance of body language for leaders, and shows how you can establish leadership presence. Lastly, she provides simple and effective tips on communicating with gestures and stance.
8. HTML Essential Training
Instructor: James Williamson
Course Description: HTML is the programming language that powers the web. And like any language, once you master it, you can begin to create your own content, whether that's simple websites or complex web applications. This course provides an in-depth look at the essentials: the syntax of HTML and best practices for writing and editing your code. Senior staff author James Williamson reviews the structure of a typical HTML document, and shows how to section pages and format your content with HTML. Plus, learn how to create links and lists, and find out how HTML works with CSS and JavaScript to create rich, engaging user experiences. So open a text editor, watch these videos, and begin learning to author HTML the right way.
9. Strategic Thinking
Instructor: Dorie Clark
Course Description: Strategic thinking is the ability to think on a big and small scale, long and short term, and into the past and the present. While strategic thinking is a valuable skill for everyone in an organization, it becomes increasingly essential as you ascend the ladder. In fact, you may have a difficult time being promoted or succeeding as a leader without it. Yet, no one formally teaches strategic thinking—so it's critical to take the initiative and learn how to do it yourself. This course teaches managers and leaders how to use strategic thinking to guide the direction of their teams and come up with solutions to key business problems. Career and personal branding expert Dorie Clark shows you how to carve out time to think about strategy, gather data, learn from the past, create a vision for the future, and implement strategic thinking within your team.
10. Online Marketing Foundations
Instructor: Brad Batesole
Course Description: Learn how to promote your business effectively online and develop a targeted online marketing strategy that engages potential customers throughout the digital landscape. In this course, Brad Batesole explains today's digital marketing techniques in simple terms, demonstrating how to build a successful online marketing campaign for all digital channels: search, video, social, email, and display.
Brad shows how to evaluate your website and identify conversion goals, measure and interpret website analytics, get the most out of SEO, and set up your first text and display ads. See how to connect with communities on the leading social networks, learn best practices for developing and distributing video marketing content, and find out what makes an email marketing campaign successful. This course also covers content marketing, mobile marketing, and influencer marketing, as well as recommendations for expanding your digital marketing skillset. Upon completing this foundational digital marketing course, you'll be equipped with skills and strategies that can help you navigate today's online landscape and develop a smart plan of action.
11. Learning Python
Instructor: Joe Marini
Course Description: Python—the popular and highly readable object-oriented language—is both powerful and relatively easy to learn. Whether you're new to programming or an experienced developer, this course can help you get started with Python. Joe Marini provides an overview of the installation process, basic Python syntax, and an example of how to construct and run a simple Python program. Learn to work with dates and times, read and write files, and retrieve and parse HTML, JSON, and XML data from the web.
12. Excel 2016: Advanced Formulas and Functions
Instructor: Dennis Taylor
Course Description: Excel expert Dennis Taylor demystifies some of the most useful of the 450+ formulas and functions in Excel and shows how to put them to their best use. Dennis starts with a review of the more basic functions (SUM, AVERAGE, and MAX), and a few critical keyboard shortcuts that will let you locate and display formula cells and accelerate working with Excel formulas—even on multiple sheets. He then covers how to find and retrieve data with the VLOOKUP and INDEX functions, calculate totals with counting and statistical functions, extract data with text functions, and work with date, time, array, math and information functions. The course focuses on practical examples that will help viewers easily transition to using Excel's most powerful formulas and functions in real-world scenarios.
13. Time Management Fundamentals
Instructor: Dave Crenshaw
Course Description: Effective time management is an indispensable skill. Best-selling author and business coach Dave Crenshaw lays the theoretical and practical foundations for managing your time and becoming more productive. Learn how to get more done in the shortest time possible and avoid the obstacles and distractions that can get in the way of good time management. Dave gives practical strategies for increasing productivity in three main areas: developing habits to be more organized and reducing clutter in your workspace; staying mentally on task and eliminate the to-dos you have floating in your head; and developing a time budget to get the most done during your workday and focus on your most valuable activities.
14. Communicating with Confidence
Instructor: Jeff Ansell
Course Description: Most people are afraid of speaking in public, but effective oral communication is a key skill in business. Jeff Ansell provides simple communication tools, strategies, and tips that are easy to use and produce immediate results. He'll help you sound more confident, use body and language to better express ideas, and overcome anxiety. In the last chapter of the course, all these concepts are brought together in two real-world coaching exercises that will help you see the techniques in action.
15. Scrum: The Basics
Instructor: Kelley O’Connell
Course Description: If you've spent any time in the project management world, you've likely heard of scrum—the popular framework for managing complex processes. If this mysterious-sounding framework has piqued your interest, this course can help provide you with a basic understanding of what scrum is and how you can start implementing it at work. Follow scrum expert Kelley O'Connell as she walks through why scrum has taken the business world by storm, and how it asks you to organize your team and work. Plus, she explains how to manage your projects and measure how they're faring, and set manageable improvement goals.
16. Git Essential Training
Instructor: Kevin Skoglund
Course Description: Learn how to use Git, the popular open-source version control software, to manage the source code for almost any project. In this course, Kevin Skoglund explores the fundamental concepts behind version control systems and the Git architecture. Using a step-by-step approach, he shows how to install Git and presents the commands that enable efficient code management. Learn how to add, change, and delete files in the repository; view a log of previous commits; and compare versions of a file. Plus, see how to undo changes to files and ignore certain files in a Git repository.
17. Developing Executive Presence
Instructor: John Ullmen
Course Description: Learn to project self-confidence, clarity, and credibility even under conditions of stress, pressure, and uncertainty. In this course, John Ullmen, PhD, a professor from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, shares key research insights and step-by-step methods he uses to coach leaders around the world to develop executive presence. He outlines the four key factors that drive executive presence, and the specific actions that make them work for you. He also explains the difference between "internal" and "external" presence, and how to enhance both to increase your self-assurance and self-possession. He addresses how to do all of this without being fake or feeling inauthentic, and how to be "fully present, persistently."
18. GDPR Compliance: Essential Training
Instructor: Mandy Huth
Course Description: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new privacy-related regulation in the EU that will become active and enforceable in May of 2018. GDPR requires US companies doing business in the EU to protect citizen privacy, and companies who do not comply will face heavy fines. This course is intended to outline who needs to do this, what they need to do, and how they need to do it. Learn about the scope of GDPR, the definition of a personal data breach, the rights of data subjects, incident response requirements under GDPR, and more.
19. Amazon Web Services Essential Training
Instructor: Jeff Winesett
Course Description: Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most widely used cloud platforms, and the go-to for many organizations looking to reduce costs by adopting a cloud infrastructure strategy. This course starts by examining cloud concepts and best practices. Next, it walks you through how to design your infrastructure to prevent failure. Then, you'll discover how to implement elasticity with automation, and strategies to decouple application components. Then, learn how to optimize for performance and for cost. Last, put concepts into practice by setting up the server-based architectures for a web application in addition to implementing a serverless approach using AWS API Gateway and Lambda.
20. Critical Thinking
Instructor: Mike Figliuolo
Course Description: Critical thinking is the ability to think reflectively and independently in order to make thoughtful decisions. By focusing on root-cause issues critical thinking helps you avoid future problems that can result from your actions. In this course, leadership trainer and expert Mike Figliuolo outlines a series of techniques to help you develop your critical thinking skills. He reveals how to define the problem you're trying to solve and then provides a number of critical thinking tools such as blowing up the business, asking the 5 whys and the 7 so whats, exploring the 80/20 rule, and more. He also provides guidance on how to develop this skill across your whole team.
LinkedIn Learning has more than 14,000 courses covering virtually every professional skill. See our full library today.
Methodology: Our most popular courses were identified by looking at the courses with the most total minutes viewed on LinkedIn Learning between May 1, 2018 and May 1, 2019.
Topics: New courses
Related articles