In this world of ambiguity, complexity, volatility, and uncertainty, even the world’s most popular brands require to constantly innovate. They can only thrive in any business environment if they adopt flexible thinking and develop an entrepreneurial mindset. How do they do that? Well, first and foremost taking some innovation classes can help.
The last few years saw economic turbulence. It is a wake-up call for brands, companies, and businesses of all types and sizes. Hence, organizations must innovate and become more resilient and efficient to support their growth. They can do this in several different ways. One way to go about it is bettering the current business model.
Below we will discuss some of the best online innovation courses that will teach you about critical innovation skills.
11 Best Innovation Training Online
- Business Model Innovation: Differentiate & Grow Your Company – [Udemy]
- Innovation Master Class – [Udemy]
- Accelerate Innovation & Creativity, a Research based Guide! – [Udemy]
- Innovation: From Creativity to Entrepreneurship Specialization – Offered by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – [Coursera]
- Innovation Through Design: Think, Make, Break, Repeat – Offered by the University of Sydney – [Coursera]
- Innovation Management – Offered by Erasmus University Rotterdam – [Coursera]
- Innovation Training classes – [edX]
- Entrepreneurship & Innovation – [Harvard Business School]
- Online Innovation Classes – [Stanford Online]
- Innovation Courses – [Future Learn]
- Free Online Innovation Courses – [Alison]
How Did We Seal These Courses?
We scouted the web looking for courses on innovation and came across 100s of options. It left us bewildered. So, we decided to screen some of the top sessions. Initially, we started the list with 50 courses and compared them one five parameters:
- What are the offerings?
- Is it free or paid?
- Is there a certification included?
- Course duration & flexibility
- What is the instructor’s background or experience?
- What are the reviews and ratings?
It helped us narrow down the list of 50 to 25 best innovation training online. We then presented this list to professional innovators and creative minds in the field of business. They helped us pick the below-listed courses. Let us discuss them one by one.
11 Best Innovation Classes Online
1. Business Model Innovation: Differentiate & Grow Your Company – [Udemy]
| Rating | 4.6 |
| Who should take this course? | This course will benefit:
|
| Enrolled | 46,021 students |
| Duration | 4 hours of on-demand video |
| Instructor | Paul Nekh and Olena T. (FR) |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Cons | It is one of the best online innovation courses, but the instructor could try to improve the structure. |
In this innovation training online, you will receive several business examples and strategies to better your business. The whole class has three main chunks:
- Introduction to Business Models
- Business Model Innovation
- Revenue Models
These are bestselling innovation classes. You will find several strategic insights to better your innovative business practices. Knowledge of these strategies can help you study a business and brainstorm ideas to boost growth by employing various business model innovation techniques.
Learning Outcomes
It is one of the best online innovation courses. Here, you will learn the following:
- Knowledge of the Business Model Canvas to get an overview of how a business works
- What are the different components of a business, its system, and how they function
- New types of innovation used by start-ups and large corporations – Design, Customer Niches, Sales & Delivery Channels, Customer Engagement, Processes, and Revenue Models
- Differentiate From Competition
- Finding new sources of growth
- Making a business more resilient and efficient
- Designing innovative business models
- You explore and master the different kinds of innovation in these innovation classes
Prerequisites
For this innovation course, you will need:
- Basic understanding of business
- Interest in innovation, technology, start-ups, and business
Review Katsiaryna T.
I really enjoyed the course. Kudos to Paul, Olena and the rest of the team behind it! Clear narrative, practical examples, good visuals. Thank you!
2. Innovation Master Class – [Udemy]
| Rating | 4.5 |
| Who should take this course? | It is one of the top contenders in our list for the best online innovation courses and can benefit:
|
| Enrolled | 27,838 students |
| Duration | 3.5 hours of on-demand video |
| Instructor | Thomas M Koulopoulos |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Cons | Twenty-eight and twenty-nine have some cosmetic glitches. The content keeps repeating every few minutes. |
Next, we have one of the most comprehensive innovation classes. It covers everything you must understand to create an enterprise innovation practice. The class has everything from the current context of innovation metrics to the role of leadership and innovation in a climate of economic uncertainty and volatility.
You will also find several case studies in these classes of companies that are great innovators. Includes Apple, Sony, GM, Boston Beer Company, Kodak, NASA, 3M, iRobot, and others
This class has fifty-seven video segments and four hours of instruction. It is one of the top online innovation courses because the instructor imparts everything in an easy-to-digest and crisp manner.
Your instructor for this class is one of the foremost experts on innovation who has taught over 100000 professionals. In addition, the course also has 12 exercises wherein you can apply your learned knowledge and four assessment quizzes to assess your understanding.
Learning Outcomes
In this innovation training online, you will learn several things. A few of them are:
- Building an innovation practice
- Leveraging technology to manage innovation
- Creating behaviors and rewards that encourage an innovative culture
- Determining the organization’s propensity for innovation
- How do other organizations leverage creative abilities
- Components of innovation
- Correct ways and pitfalls to incentivize innovation
- These innovation classes bring you seven lessons from the world’s best innovators
- Assessing an organization’s innovation abilities
- Best practices for innovation management
- Role of leadership in innovation
- Measuring innovation
- Building innovation as an organizational competency
- Creating sustainable innovation
- Increasing your abilities to build fresh new possibilities
- Putting your abilities to work in your personal life and your business, profession, or organization
Prerequisites
It is one of the top contenders in the best online innovation courses. As such, there are no prerequisites for this class.
Review Nisha S.
This course has helped me to understand Innovation concepts and how to drive it in organisations.
3. Accelerate Innovation & Creativity, a Research based Guide! – [Udemy]
| Rating | 4.5 |
| Who should take this course? | These innovation classes will benefit:
|
| Enrolled | 6,549 students |
| Duration | 3.5 hours of innovation training online via video lessons |
| Instructor | Sivakami S |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Cons | There are very few static visuals in this class. |
You must have heard people call someone an innovative or a creative genius. Are they born with it, or do they develop this over time? What are some vital factors of innovation, creativity, success, or expertise? Can practice and hard work make a difference? What does the research in Neuroscience and Psychology say about these things?
You study it all in these innovation classes.
It is another comprehensive course that helps foster innovation, creative thinking, and creativity. The class covers ways and means to accentuate your expertise and ideas from any creative individual’s point of view and then from an environmental point of view in an environment that supports quality ideas and innovation.
Learning Outcomes
You can expect to learn multiple things with this one of the best online innovation courses. These include:
- Getting a deeper insight into Neuroscience and Psychology
- Understanding the expertise, innovation, and creativity required for success
- Knowing what you can do as employees, colleagues, Supervisors, Leaders, team members, and family members to yield better ideas
- Finding what makes an environment creative and innovative, which fosters new ideas
- Learning how to become a master or expert and improve your ideas
Prerequisites
It is beginner-friendly. If you have a high school education, you can take it. There are no significant prerequisites for it.
Review Vania W.
Great course to understanding innovation and human history.
4. Innovation: From Creativity to Entrepreneurship Specialization – Offered by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – [Coursera]
| Rating | 4.8 |
| Who should take this course? | These innovation classes will benefit:
|
| Enrolled | 26,583 students |
| Duration | Approximately eight months to complete – Suggested pace of 4 hours per week. |
| Instructor | Raj Echambadi, Jeffrey Loewenstein, Thomas E. Parkinson, E. Geoffrey Love, Jack Goncalo, and Jeff Flesher |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Cons | It is one of the most rewarding online innovation courses, but it may have been better if the instructor could add more illustrations. |
It is a detailed specialization and a part of the Gies College of Business suite of online programs, including the iMSM and iMBA.
There are seven innovation classes in this Specialization:
- Strategic Innovation: Building and Sustaining Innovative Organizations
- Strategic Innovation: Managing Innovation Initiatives
- Creativity Toolkit I: Changing Perspectives
- Creativity Toolkit II: Creative Collaboration
- Entrepreneurship I: Laying the Foundation
- Entrepreneurship II: Preparing for Launch
- Innovation: From Creativity to Entrepreneurship Capstone
Prerequisites
It is not a free course. So, having a budget is the first prerequisite for these innovation classes. Beyond this, it is a beginner-friendly session. So, you can make the most of this course even if you have no background.
5. Innovation through Design: Think, Make, Break, Repeat – Offered by the University of Sydney – [Coursera]
| Rating | 4.8 |
| Who should take this course? | It is one of the top online innovation courses, ideal for beginners without prior knowledge or experience. The class will benefit anyone curious about design and translate the processes and tools of design thinking into innovative opportunities. |
| Enrolled | 83,729 students |
| Duration | Approx. 16 hours to complete |
| Instructor | Martin Tomitsch and Cara Wrigley |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Cons | The instructor can consider adding more case studies to this innovation training online. |
Design evolution is a discipline not curtailed to the concerns of a single specific domain. It is today the pathway to solving nonlinear and complex issues. Hence, design is a capability-accentuating skill, equipping people with the ability to deal with failure, complications, and vagueness.
Once you finish this course, you will have the practical techniques and tools to apply to situations in the professional context and change all problems into opportunities and solutions.
Learning Outcomes
In these innovation classes, you will discover the following:
- Using design as a medium to offer a strategic and innovative advantage in your profession
- Practicing and applying the design process – think, make, break, and repeat
- Examining case studies with leading Australian design firms
- Building prototypes as tangible representations
- Testing potential solutions
- Innovating through designs
- Improving ideas and developing new insights
- This innovation training online equips you with a comprehensive understanding of design
- Role of design within the innovation landscape
Review WW.
Design principles taught are very practical that can be applied to everyday use. The course is well structured, and has many useful contents including valuable insights from experienced designers.
6. Innovation Management – Offered by Erasmus University Rotterdam – [Coursera]
| Rating | 4.7 |
| Who should take this course? | Beginners with no experience can take these innovation classes. |
| Enrolled | 82,702 students |
| Duration | Approx. 11 hours to complete |
| Instructor | Serge Rijsdijk, Sandra Langeveld, Stefano Tasselli, Dirk Deichmann, Daan Stam, Murat Tarakci, and Jan van den Ende |
| Paid | Yes |
| Certification | Yes |
| Return or refund policy | 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee |
| Cons | There are no quizzes in this course. |
What do you understand about innovation management? How do firms bring new business models and release new products and services into the market? Wish to know all this and more? Consider enrolling in this Coursera’s one of the famous innovation training online.
There is no fee to participate in this program. Herein, you will study with renowned academics and develop innovative expertise and mindset. You will also discover how firms successfully produce new ideas for launching new services or products into the market.
Learning Outcomes
These are informative nine-week innovation classes wherein you will come across:
- Knowledge of the primary innovation management terminology and concepts
- Using innovation management concepts
- Understanding theadoption life cycle
- Knowledge of the innovation adoption at the individual level
- Theories of idea selection and generation
Further, as you progress with this innovation training online, you will learn:
- What is creativity?
- Strategy formulation and implementation
- How do I stimulate creativity?
- Tools for implementing innovation projects yourself
- Three types of idea management systems
- What is an innovation strategy?
- Importance of innovation strategy
- What is a product portfolio?
- How innovation projects should be selected and managed
- Importance of teams, team structures, and networks for innovation
Prerequisites
These are long innovation classes. So, you need time to take this session. Beyond this, there are no specific prerequisites as it is a beginner-friendly course.
Review A.
I loved the course. The ideas and concepts were explained using good examples. However, it was sometimes not easy to follow the lecturer because of the different accents. Otherwise, a great course
7. Best Online Innovation Courses – [edX]
edX is a hub for online educational programs. Recognized professionals and experts offer these classes. You can find sessions for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. You can find both instructor-led and self-paced options.
They have free sessions. You do not get a certification if you do not pay an additional fee. The no-cost picks also do not offer graded sessions. So, browse through the available offerings and make your selection.
The innovation classes can help you think creatively and become an innovative force in your life and career. You will also discover customer-centric innovation, responsible innovation, technology innovation, and much more.
Some of the courses you can check out are:
- Customer-Centric Innovation – Offered by RWTH Aachen University
- From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Social Innovation – Offered by Babson College
- Leading Innovation with Vijay Govindarajan – Offered by Dartmouth College
8. Entrepreneurship & Innovation – [Harvard Business School]
Harvard Business School also has innovation training online programs to help you harness innovation, assess new business opportunities, and metamorphose your idea into a viable venture.
Learner Objectives
- Ninety percent of students who availed of these progressed in their professional life.
- The course completion rate is ninety-two percent.
- The satisfaction rate is ninety-one percent.
Some of the top innovation classes you can explore at Harvard are:
- Harness the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Craft Winning Strategies
- Master a Proven Framework for Building and Financing New Ventures
- Design Thinking and Innovation
9. Online Innovation Program – [Stanford Online]
Stanford Online also has an array of innovation training online programs offered by industry leaders. They make the classes interactive and engaging. All sessions are 100% online, and you can study anytime, anywhere at your pace while connecting with global faculties.
So, browse through their free courses and avail of credit-bearing, professional education, and graduate degrees.
Some of the top options include:
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program
- Innovating Through Value Chains
- Innovation Strategy in a Digital World
- Leading Innovation
- Financing Innovation: Valuing Projects and Firms
10. Innovation Courses – [FutureLearn]
Innovation is a prevalent buzzword, but do you know what it means? Learn this and more with some of the popular innovation classes by FutureLearn.
You can find innovation courses on various technologies associated with innovation like business strategy, investment, AI and Robotics, Software Development, Digital Marketing, Management & Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Big Data & Analytics, Business Technology, Data Science, and more.
Some of the top sessions you can check out are:
- Innovation: the Fashion Industry
- Culture Preneurship: How to Start a Creative Business
- How to Launch Your Food Product
- Unleash Your Potential: Innovation and Enterprise
11. Free Online Innovation Courses – [Alison]
Now, we have arrived at the last listing. On this platform, you can find several free innovation classes. Though free, these come with a certification and provide learning of the correct application of information, imagination, and initiative that meet current or unarticulated market needs.
You can find beginner, intermediate, and advanced level classes with Alison.
Top professionals and experts offer these sessions. You can browse through their several offerings and find one that best fits your needs. You can also take multiple classes together to build on your knowledge.
Some of the top online innovation courses from the brand are:
- The Principles of Innovation in Business
- Diploma in Entrepreneurship – Innovation, Trade Mark and Patent Strategies
- Diploma in Creativity and Innovation
- Diploma in Innovation Management for Food and Beverage Manufacturing
Related: Operations Management Courses Online | Supply Chain Classes
Conclusion
So, these are the top 11 innovation classes. They are all excellent picks, but from the available alternatives, Innovation Master Class – [Udemy] is the most superior in our view. It is comprehensive and has a lot for you to learn. But, of course, you can pick from the other ten options. So, go ahead, and make the selection. Happy Learning!
