Best Free MOOCs In Business For June

Leadership Through Design Innovation

School: Northwestern University

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link: CLICK HERE

Start Date: June 6, 2016

Workload: 3-4 Hours Per Week

Instructors: Elizabeth Gerber, Pam Daniels, Ed Colgate and Greg Holderfield

Credentials: Gerber is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering, where she focuses on harnessing “the diverse and untapped human, social and economic capital from distributed networks.”  Daniels is a Design Innovator in Residence at McCormick’s Segal Design Institute and is the co-founder of the non-profit DesignHouse Chicago. Colgate is the Senior Professor in Design at McCormick, where his research targets human-robot interaction. Holderfield is the head of the Segal Design Institute.

Graded: Students can choose to explore course videos, discussions, and ungraded assignments for free, but they won’t be able to submit graded assignments, earn a certificate, or complete a specialization without paying a $79 per course fee.

Description: “Innovation” – it’s the mantra of today’s fast-changing business world. To excel, you need to be constantly re-thinking and re-testing – always asking “why” with an eye always turned towards “how.”  Doing that requires a culture that embraces experimentation and avoids becoming fixated on a particular avenue. Even more, it requires a different type of leader. In this course, students will “learn how to engage with end users, effectively frame problems, identify potential solutions, and build prototypes to test assumptions and learn what works (and doesn’t).”

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Additional Background: This is the fifth of a six course specialization from Northwestern University called “Strategic Leadership and Management.” It includes courses on teamwork and negotiation, marketing leadership, and social influence. To learn more about this specialization and register for it, click here.