Best Free Business MOOCs In February

Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship

School: University of Maryland

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link: REGISTER HERE

Start Date: February, 2017 (6 Weeks)

Workload: 3-5 Hours per Week

Instructor: James V. Green

Credentials: Dr. Green is the Director of Entrepreneurship Education at the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech). Before entering academia, he held leadership roles in sales and operations for Cyveillance, a leader in cyber intelligence, fraud protection, and security, and NetMentors.org, a career development start-up. He also worked as a consultant for Booz Allen, providing technical analysis to defense organizations. In 2011, he won the 3E Learning Innovative Entrepreneurship Education Competition, which honors educators who teach entrepreneurship. He is also the creator of the Opportunity Analysis Canvas, a methodology used to identify and evaluate new business opportunities.

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 $49 fee.

Description: This course examines the product lifecycle from concept to launch to maturation, covering areas like market research, business models, positioning, pricing, customer expectations, forecasting, and risk management. Each weekly course includes lectures, online readings, and assignments.  The objective is to help students “see and act entrepreneurially,” so they can “develop great ideas into great companies.”

Review: “Excellent content, delivery, testing ,and practical information. I have some practical entrepreneurship experience having worked at 2 startups- the second of which I helped found. The exercises help one decide if they have the mindset to do a startup and ways to practice building the skills to do it as well.” For additional reviews, click here.

Additional Note: This course was ranked the #1 Entrepreneurship Course and the #8 Overall Business Course on Coursera according to CourseTalk.

This course is the first part of an “Entrepreneurship: Launching an Innovative Business” specialization, a four course series that includes a capstone project. To learn more about these courses and register for them, click here.

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