10 of the best Coursera courses, according to users

It's never too late to further your education. There's always something new and exciting worth learning, not to mention that completing courses on various topics can really beef up your résumé. Coursera, the best online learning platform, offers thousands of online courses for upskilling in various business verticals, ranging from project management to human resources, e-commerce, risk management, sales, and more. Courses are offered through companies at the top of their game in each sector as well as respected universities and other educational institutions.

You can choose from the more than 7,000 online courses with a Coursera Plus subscription, which is $59/month, or $399/year. Every course can be done at your own pace, working around your schedule. Lengths vary depending on the complexity and detail, and some courses are part of a specialization, linked with others you can take to continue the learning in more depth. Once complete, you'll get a digital certificate to share the accomplishment with pride on your LinkedIn profile.

Which Coursera courses are among the best? We scoured the site and curated this list of top-rated, well reviewed courses that would be most relevant in today's ever-evolving business landscape.

1. Measure and Optimize Social Media Marketing Campaigns

Company: Meta

Rating: 4.9

Best for: marketers, analysts, communications professionals

Anyone with basic Internet skills can take this beginner-level course to get up to speed on social media marketing in the new digital age. The course offers a look at various techniques you can use to optimize social media campaigns, examines how to analyze dashboards and evaluate ROI, presents the concept of using A/B testing to measure the effectiveness of a campaign, and discusses how to best to present your results to a team.

With the vast majority (98%) of people who have taken this course giving it a thumbs up and thousands already enrolled, it's a great option to help enhance a digital marketer's skills. One reviewer says it changed their perception about social media marketing campaigns while another calls it "unmissable for social media marketers."

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2. Forecasting Skills: See the Future Before it Happens

Company: Institute for the Future

Rating: 4.9

Best for: CEOs, business owners, strategic leaders

There's no crystal ball to tell you the future, but forecasting is crucial for any business. There are ways to analyze data, habits, and trends to anticipate what's to come. This beginner-level course does not require that you have any prior experience, making it perfect for someone looking to switch careers, enhance skills, get back into the workforce, or start with their first job.

The entire course takes about 13 hours along with five quizzes at the end before achieving your digital and shareable certificate. You'll learn about how to analyze signals and global drivers of change and create scenarios about your future forecast to be prepared for just about anything. One reviewer says the course is not only useful to strengthen strategic skills but also "provides a good basic overview about...technologies and advancements that are shaping the next 10 years," like blockchain, AI, and deepfakes.

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3. Excel Skills for Business: Essentials

Company: Macquarie University

Rating: 4.9

Best for: office managers, assistants, secretaries

This beginner-level course will take a total of 26 hours to complete. For current or aspiring office support workers, Microsoft Excel might still be a big part of the job. So, learning all the essentials of how to use the software can make your résumé stand out and the job run much more smoothly and efficiently.

You'll learn how to create graphs, spreadsheets, and charts, and be whipping them up in no time once you're done. The course includes a total of 40 quizzes so it's comprehensive. But you can pat yourself on the back and consider yourself a casual Excel expert once you're done. One reviewer says the course helped strengthen what they already knew and showed them other tools they weren't using and didn't even know existed.

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4. Foundations of Project Management

Company: Google

Rating: 4.9

Best for: project managers, career development

A quick course at just 18 hours total, this one is offered by Google Career Certificates, which is labeled as a top instructor. It helps beginners and existing professionals learn the skills needed for a project management role and what the responsibilities might entail across different industry verticals.

Learn about the project management life cycle, compare different methodologies, and gain a better understanding of organizational structure and culture. There are a total of 15 quizzes as part of the assessment. Reviewers love how much information is packed into the single course as well as the perfectly time quizzes to help solidify comprehension as you move along. "I feel like I ripped them off with how much knowledge I'm getting!" joked one reviewer.

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5. Introduction to Psychology

Company: Yale

Rating: 4.9

Best for: critical thinking, problem solving

Psychology is the foundation for any position and any company, so having a deeper understanding of the fundamentals provides a useful backbone, whether you're just starting your career or have been working for decades. A beginner level course, you can complete this one in about three weeks at four hours per week for a total of 14 hours.

The idea is to help you learn about reasoning and problem solving, and develop abstract, analytical, and critical thinking skills that will come in handy for any role and help you deal with challenges. There are only six quizzes to complete this course and verify that you have soaked in all the knowledge. Reviewers say this course is well organized, well-paced, and engaging, but some say the readings may take longer than anticipated.

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6. The Science of Well-Being

Company: Yale

Rating: 4.9

Best for: mental health

We become so focused on physical health that it's easy to forget how important taking care of your mental health is, too, for both your personal and professional well-being. In this 19-hour course, which can be completed over about three weeks (six hours per week), you'll learn the tools for living a happier, more fulfilled life.

Learn about having gratitude for the things you have, managing expectations, the importance of meditation, and how to put strategies into practice to help you build healthier habits. To complete this course, there are eight quizzes in total. One reviewer who claims to have taken a dozen courses online so far says they found this one to be the "most challenging and fulfilling course I have taken so far."

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7. Science of Exercise

Company: University of Colorado Boulder

Rating: 4.8

Best for: fitness and nutrition experts

Whether you're a fitness and nutrition expert, looking to become one, or just want to learn more about integrating exercise into your daily life, this course, offered by a Ph.D. from the university, helps you understand the relationship between exercise and your body's physiological responses. Learn about carbohydrates, fat, and protein metabolism, about making good nutritional choices to complement exercise, and about muscle soreness, fatigue, and performance-enhancing drugs.

Suitable for even beginners, the course only takes nine hours to complete and can be done with a flexible schedule over three weeks, about three hours per week. Those who have taken the course say they love that the content is in depth but broken up into small parts to make it easier to understand. It's also appreciated that content can be downloaded so you can refresh your knowledge as needed, even after the course is complete.

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8. Photography Basics and Beyond: From Smartphone to DSLR Specialization

Company: Michigan State University

Rating: 4.8

Best for: aspiring photographers, content creators, influencers

It's incredible how a bit of know-how can turn your basic photos into masterpieces. With this course, you'll learn how to take better photos whether you're using a premium smartphone or a dedicated DSLR camera with manual controls. The in-depth course requires about 10 hours a week over a two-month period. Anyone can take this course and gain the skills necessary to make photos pop, whether it's for a social media account, portfolio, website, or to use within articles.

The course begins with the basics about things like exposure and camera controls than delves into more specialized topics like photo composition, techniques involving lighting, and more. This is part of a five-course series so you can continue the learning if you aspire to be a professional or enthusiast photographer by the end. There are no quizzes, but the improvement in your photos will speak volumes.

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9. Web Design for Everybody: Basics of Web Development & Coding Specialization

Company: University of Michigan

Rating: 4.8

Best for: business owners, aspiring web developers

Have you ever wanted to learn how to build your own website? Coding is part of the ever-important STEM fields that will become critical to many jobs in the future. So, having a background in web development and programming languages like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript can make your résumé stand out with valuable skills.

Part of a five-course specialized series for those who want to go in-depth, this beginner-level course will start you off with the basics. This includes learning to design and create websites that are interactive, can be modified, and built to be viewed on multiple devices. In total, this course will take you two months to complete at 10 hours a week. A senior staff writer at Reviewed took this course and loved the structure of the class and the small weekly quizzes that help test real-world knowledge. But she did find that it took a bit longer than desired to get to the actual coding portion.

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10. How Things Work: An Introduction to Physics

Company: University of Virginia

Rating: 4.8

Best for: students studying physics, curious people

While it's labeled as an intermediate level course, you don't need to have any previous experience to take this one. It touches on the basics of physics to help you understand how things in the world around you work. You'll start with skating and move on to falling balls, ramps, seesaws, wheels, and bumper cars, providing a good foundation on which to kickstart your studies towards a career in the field. There are eight quizzes throughout the course, which takes a total of 14 hours to complete over three weeks at about four hours per week.

Those who have taken the course say content is delivered in an easy-to-understand way. Learn without complex terminology and through the use of practical examples. Many reviewers praise the course for being not only informative but also highly entertaining.

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