10 New & Noteworthy Online Courses in June 2020 on Udemy

If 2020 has taught us anything so far, it’s about the unpredictable nature of the world and the importance of learning to adapt quickly. We’ve all experienced dramatic changes in our personal and professional lives over the past several months. Wondering how you can help your employees prepare for an uncertain future? Here are 10 new and noteworthy Udemy courses to help your workforce develop essential technical and business skills.

Technical skills

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

As the future of work continues to evolve each day, it’s essential for all types of professionals to have working knowledge of key technical topics. That’s why we’re excited that popular Udemy for Business instructor Kirill Eremenko created six new Executive Briefing courses on artificial intelligence (AI) subjects. In addition to offering a broad overview of the field in a two-hour AI masterclass, Executive Briefing: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Kirill also offers a series of shorter briefings (each course can be completed in under one hour) in niche AI topics including robotic process automation (RPA), deep learning (DL), natural language processing (NLP), reinforcement learning (RL), and computer vision. Note that these courses are only available on Udemy for Business. 

“It was a fantastic course. Giving a high-level overview and a clear understanding of these disruptive technologies in a very simple way.” – Course review

Want to get a more in-depth overview of each of these topics and why they matter for your business? Kirill explores this in The AI Trends Shaping 2020 and the Coming Decade webinar, which is available to watch on-demand.

2. Azure SQL Data Warehouse

If your company is using cloud computing solutions, understanding the data analysis and infrastructure features available in your platform of choice is vital for using the data to drive meaningful business insights. Azure Synapse is an analytics service for SQL data warehousing with deep analytics capabilities so that your team of data scientists can quickly derive business insights from data. For companies who use Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, understanding Azure Synapse is important for leveraging data to stay ahead of the competition.

Azure SQL Data Warehouse Synapse Analytics Service explores the difference between Traditional vs. Modern vs. Synapse Data warehouse architecture. The course also covers why Microsoft Synapse Analytics service is going to be a game-changer in data analytics as well as topics like how to provision, configure, and scale Azure Synapse Analytics service and security as well as topics related to configuration, backups, and monitoring. Instructor Eshant Garg is an Azure Data Architect with 13 years of extensive professional experience with expertise in Microsoft Database and Business Intelligence Solutions, Advanced Analytics, Reporting, and Azure cloud computing technologies.

“I’ve been actively preparing for DP200 for the past couple of months and this course was a great refresher.” – Course review

3. Java Spring Security

As customers share more personal data online and with companies, cybersecurity of products and websites needs to be a focal point for every technical team. Java Spring Security helps developers and technical teams avoid building log-in and password security frameworks from scratch. Spring Security is a framework that can plug into new and existing web applications. It offers user authentication (username and password) and authorization (user access levels like admin vs. user).

Java Spring Security teaches Java programmers how to add robust security to their web applications. It covers how to stop unauthorized users from accessing the protected pages in your Java web application and is intended for anyone who would like to add additional functionality to their existing Java web applications. Instructor Trevor Page is a former senior software engineer turned teacher who has been sharing his passion for programming since 2012.

“The content of this course is current, updated, and relevant for developing web applications today. You will learn enough to be able to apply Spring Security to your web application. I highly recommend this course for anyone who is interested in learning about Spring Security.” – Course review

4. Snowflake 

Snowflake is a data warehousing SaaS tool that’s different from many similar services like its competitor Azure SQL Synapse because it’s not built on an existing database or data platform like Hadoop. It’s also grown in popularity thanks to the usage flexibility it offers as compared to other data warehouse offerings. Understanding how to use this vendor to build a company’s data architecture is relevant for everyone from software engineers and data analysts to data engineers and database administrators. Snowflake can be configured with some cloud vendors to load and unload data into a company’s cloud instance.

Snowflake for Developers starts with the basics of data warehousing concepts before going deep into Snowflake. Note that this course is not designed intentionally for any Certification exam preparation, but geared more towards practical use in day-to-day implementations for engineers and architects. Instructor Ashish Khaitan is a database and analytics engineer with over 15 years of experience delivering data-driven solutions.

Snowflake Decoded – Fundamentals and Hands-on Training provides Snowflake concepts and hands-on expertise to help learners get started implementing solutions using Snowflake. This course reinforces the learning through hands-on labs, assignments, and quizzes. Instructor Hamid Qureshi is a cloud and data warehouse professional with 16+ years of experience in data warehouse, big data, and cloud solutions.

“It was perfectly designed to give knowledge to beginners along with providing an overall picture of what can be achieved via Snowflake.” – Course review

5. Salesforce

Help your company better understand its customers by learning the foundations of Salesforce with the Salesforce Admin certification. Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform that can be used by teams across marketing, sales, customer support, and more. It can also be a highly complex tool, which is why there’s consistent demand for Salesforce Administrators who can guide organizations through proper best practices of data ingestion, automation, and report building. Salesforce Lightning offers an updated user interface experience friendlier to the non-technical business users of Salesforce.

Salesforce Certified Administrator (aka 201) 2020 is designed to help learners pass the Salesforce Admin exam and includes a mock exam to get real-life practice. No programming knowledge or prior Salesforce experience is necessary — the course begins with the absolute fundamentals. Instructor Francis Pindar is a Salesforce expert and has been recognized by Salesforce as an MVP seven times.

Salesforce Admin certification course also offers a comprehensive guide to passing the Salesforce Admin exam and covers all the topics in the Salesforce study guide. This interactive course is designed with quizzes and assignments throughout to keep learners engaged. Instructor Deepika Khanna is a software developer, blogger, and author who has taught over 80,000 students on Udemy.

Salesforce Lightning is a comprehensive course with 30+ hours of video content that begins with the basics and builds up to more complex topics like building and debugging components. Instructor Debasis Jena is a professional Salesforce specialist and trainer.

Salesforce Lightning Flow Builder From Basic to Advance focuses on automating your business processes with flows. The course takes learners through various automations that are possible with flows and covers how to solve everything from basic to complex business use cases with a simple point and click method. The course also covers some common business scenarios in Lightning to provide hands-on experience of use cases. Instructor Yashad Tayal is a Salesforce administrator and developer.

“Thank you, Deepika, for amazing training sessions. I was able to follow along with your training exercises and was able to build a custom app. Hands-on experience makes such a difference. You are an exceptional teacher and your passion for teaching shows in your training videos.” – Course review

Business skills

1. Working remotely 

While working remotely has been a growing trend for some time, social distancing measures put into place in response to COVID-19 led to what the New York Times called “an unprecedented experiment in working from home.” Gallup reported that nearly two-thirds of Americans were working remotely and three in five workers would prefer to continue working remotely as much as possible, even after public health restrictions are lifted. 

Thriving in a remote work environment is possible, but it often requires some extra training and support, both for employees and their managers. More than 7 in 10 employers surveyed by SHRM said they were struggling to adapt to remote work. We’ve put together Leading Your Workforce Through Change to help you identify ways to support your employees and help them develop essential skills.

Best Practices for Working Remotely is a quick and easy primer for this topic. This course introduces ways to communicate and stay accountable, best practices for running virtual meetings, ideas for structuring your day and workspace, and suggestions for managers who are leading their teams in a remote world. Instructor Shelley Osborne is the Vice President of Learning at Udemy, where she leads the company’s learning strategy and continuous upskilling of employees globally.

Working Remotely: How To Succeed In The New Workplace explores various aspects of working remotely, including how to banish feelings of isolation and “cabin fever,” how to participate in online discussions and video conferences with clarity and confidence, and how to beat procrastination, maintain motivation, and get more done when working remotely. Instructor Dr. Clare Lynch is the founder and director of Doris and Bertie, a London-based consultancy with particular expertise in helping teams communicate more effectively.

“This is just what I needed to get my best practices for working from home going.” – Course review

2. Customer success

Over the past decade, customer success has emerged as a critical part of many businesses. Describing the role of the customer success manager, a Harvard Business Review article explains, “They straddle the gap between service and sales, between company interest and customer interest, and between product expertise and customer insight. When done right, CSMs are a powerful growth engine.” Research from HubSpot supports this assessment: Growing companies are 21% more likely than their stagnant counterparts to say that customer success is very important.

Customer Success Manager (CSM) Elite is a course for building a strong foundation of customer success knowledge. This course covers the essentials of working as a customer success professional, including how to build strategic relationships, go beyond surface-level conversations with customers, and approach account planning and day-to-day work in a methodical and conscientious manner. Instructor Nils Vinje has an MBA in Management and Organizational Behavior, and quickly rose from CSM to Team Lead to Director and finally VP. During his rise, he established a track record of orchestrating record-breaking renewals and up-sells.

Hoping to help your employees dive deeper into the theory and practice of customer success? The Fundamentals of Real Customer Success covers how to use customer success as a growth engine so customers stay longer, buy more, and advocate for your organization while operationalizing the customer’s journey by identifying success milestones, joint accountabilities, and success gaps.

Instructor Lincoln Murphy is a world-renowned growth consultant and author who aims to help learners differentiate between customer success and customer happiness. He writes, “Focusing on happiness leads us astray. Instead, we need to help our customers solve their problems.” Read more from Lincoln in Forget Happiness: Customer Success Is What Really Matters.

“This was a good, succinct overview of Lincoln’s philosophies. I would recommend it to anyone practicing Customer Success Management.” – Course review

3. Growth mindset

Our mindset influences how we react to feedback and setbacks. Do we welcome challenges and failure or do we avoid them at all costs? Through her research at Stanford, Carol Dweck has observed that the mindset you choose can have a profound impact on how you live your life. 

According to Dweck, individuals can be placed on a continuum based on their mindsets. Those who believe their abilities are based on innate talents — and therefore can’t change much — have a “fixed” mindset, while those who believe that success is based on effort have a “growth” mindset. These two mindsets impact all aspects of our lives, including work, parenting, and even personal fulfillment. And it’s not just limited to individuals. Organizations have mindsets as well. They have (and promote) a growth or fixed mindset depending on the behaviors they penalize and reward. Are failed initiatives punished or celebrated?

Dweck’s research suggests that individuals in fixed mindset organizations regularly keep secrets, cut corners, and cheat to try to get ahead. She found that employees in growth mindset organizations are more likely to see their colleagues as trustworthy, feel a strong sense of ownership and commitment to the company, and say their organization supports risk-taking. Organizations can always benefit from adopting a growth mindset, but it’s especially important when adapting to rapid change and uncertainty about the future.

Growth Mindset: The Key to Greater Confidence and Impact helps learners consider 6 roadblocks that may be keeping them from having a growth mindset, along with proven strategies to overcome them. The course is designed to bring a growth mindset to your organization and covers how this can positively impact culture, innovation, engagement, and retention.

Instructor Diane Flynn is the co-founder and CEO of ReBoot Accel, designing work cultures that support and advance women. She facilitates workshops and coaches individuals interested in growing their careers, impact, and confidence. Diane also consults with Fortune 500 companies on gender diversity and building cultures where each voice is heard. Read more from Diane in her recent blog post How to Foster a Growth Mindset in Times of Change and Uncertainty.

“I loved this course! Great tips on overcoming some of the biggest roadblocks we have to cultivating a growth mindset. The instructor was really engaging and I loved doing the exercises throughout.” – Course review

4. Handling difficult conversations

Whether you use the term difficult conversations, assertive communication, or nonviolent communication, we all find ourselves in situations where we have to talk about something that makes us uncomfortable and involves calling out another person. For many people, the instinct is just to avoid these conversations altogether. Research by mentoring platform Bravely finds that 70% of employees avoid difficult conversations at work and 53% of employees handle toxic situations simply by avoiding them.

Managers might feel especially anxious about giving constructive feedback to their direct reports. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, 68% of managers said that they’re often uncomfortable communicating with employees and 37% said they’re uncomfortable giving direct feedback about their employees’ performance if they think the employee is likely to respond negatively. This can be especially difficult now that so many teams are working remotely. To dive into this topic further, see Handling Difficult Conversations in the Remote Workplace.

Dread-Free Difficult Conversations: Speak Up with Courage is designed to take the fear out of difficult conversations. This course covers how to manage anxiety and fears about the conversation and how to plan what to say depending on the person the conversation will involve. Instructor Andrea Wedell is a seasoned business, executive, and career coach with 20+ years of coaching experience.

“This course is a game-changer. It gave me the tools, encouragement, and confidence to fully engage in what have been agonizing, paralyzing conversations.” – Course review

5. Team vision, mission, and values

“As a leader, being clear on your vision, mission, and values is a best practice in ‘ordinary’ times. It is even more essential during times of uncertainty, providing your team members with inspiration and clarity for the path ahead,” writes Udemy instructor Nancy Larocca Hedley.

Having a well-articulated vision and mission can help employees align their day-to-day work with a higher purpose. This is especially important as younger generations enter the workforce — 46% of millennials and 47% of Gen Z respondents said making a positive impact on their communities and society is a priority.

Having clear values and a positive culture can be a true differentiating factor for organizations looking to attract and retain talent. In fact, research from Deloitte shows a correlation between employees who say they’re happy at work and valued by their company and those who say their organization has a clearly articulated and lived culture.

In her course Creating Team Vision, Mission & Values, Nancy covers the difference between vision and mission statements and why they’re both important and how to engage your team in the process of creating vision, mission, and values statements. As the Founder and CEO of Illumine Coaching & Consulting, Nancy is committed to enhancing leadership, teamwork, and collaboration within organizations. Nancy also partners with individuals to align their professional contributions with their strengths and passions so they can experience joy and meaning in their work.

“Love the enthusiasm and simple examples that make it easier to follow and apply. Will be working on this with my team.” – Course review