The 10 most popular free online courses for professionals

Wharton professor Brian J. Bushee teaches the basics of accounting in this course. By the end, you'll know how to confidently read an income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows.

It's one of four courses in Wharton's business foundation Coursera package, which costs you $595 for the classes and a capstone project, all graded. If you don't care about a certificate or being part of a cohort that can interact with each other and the professors, you can work through each course for free.

Next session: Dec. 28 - Feb. 1

Find it here >>

Ross School of Business professor George Siedel has taught negotiation classes around the world and says his research-based class is useful whether you're trying to secure a million-dollar investment in your business or to lower the cost of your cable bill.

Next session: Always available

Find it here >>

Python is one of the world's top five programming languages and is used at organizations like Google, Yahoo, and NASA. It's a high-level language, but a novice can learn the basics relatively easily.

Rice professors Joe Warren, Scott Rixner, John Greiner, and Stephen Wong keep the course interesting by having students use Python to build simple games like Pong and Asteroids.

Next session: Jan. 9 - Feb. 2

Find it here >>

This course from University of Virginia professors David Francis Germano and Kurt R. Schaeffer takes a look at multiple Tibetan Buddhist meditation traditions from historical, religious, scientific, and practical purposes.

It's a multi-layered introduction to the roots of an increasingly secularized practice.

Upcoming session: Always available

Find it here >>

Johns Hopkins professors Jeff Leek, Roger D. Peng, and Brian Caffo use this two-part course to give an overview of what exactly data scientists do, as well as to introduce students to some of their tools: version control, markdown, git, GitHub, R, and RStudio.

It's one of nine courses in the data science introductory package, which costs $470 for full participation and a certificate of completion.

Next session: Current session still open, ends Jan. 2

Find it here >>

This is another class in the Johns Hopkins data science package. It introduces students to the R programming language, which is the world's most popular language for data analysis.

Next session: Current session still open, ends Jan. 2

Find it here >>

If you've been wanting to learn more about artificial intelligence, this is a great place to start. Stanford associate professor and Coursera cofounder Andrew Ng uses case studies and programming exercises to illustrate some of the ways machines learn.

Next session: Dec. 28 - Mar. 21

Find it here >>

This is another Python course, from Michigan professor Charles Severance.

It's part one of five, so consider this one if you're looking for a more thorough foundation.

Next session: Current session still open, enrollment ends Dec. 21

Find it here >>

Duke post-doctoral fellow Jana Schaich Borg and director of the Center for Quantitative Modeling Daniel Egger teach students how to use Excel to understand the concepts behind uncertainty-reduction and information-gain predictive models that data scientists use.

It's one of four courses in Duke's data science package, which costs $395 for full participation.

Next session: Dec. 14 - Feb. 1

Find it here >>

Oakland University professor Barbara Oakley and Salk Institute professor Terrence Sejnowski use studies of brain chemistry to determine the best ways to approach a new subject, memorize facts, and deal with procrastination.

The instructors make a bold claim: "If you've ever wanted to become better at anything, this course will help serve as your guide."

Next session: Jan. 4 - Feb. 7

Find it here >>