Without a doubt, the pandemic catalysed the global digitalization process, causing us to reluctantly adapt to a new, fully online system that was not even supposed to be introduced until the next 20 years. At the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, remote workers, worldwide, found it excruciating to switch from a physical workspace to a fully online one. Dealing with technical issues, poor WiFi connection and a poor work-life balance at home, were some of the various issues faced by the remote working community during the pandemic.
Albeit these tough changes, companies have begun to realise that switching towards a fully remote workspace has its own perks too. Nowadays, since the world is slowly opening up, companies now offer a hybrid mode of work, incorporating both physical and remote features, leaving remote employees, with no choice but to adapt to these changes. With new changes, come new skills to learn. Employees should be willing to learn remote working skills that encompass a variety of sub-skills to enable themselves to work efficiently and increase their productivity.
In fact, the World Wide Web, or more commonly known as the Internet, hosts a wide range of free online courses that would cater to the needs of these employees, regardless of their prior experience and skills. Worried about picking a wrong course? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some of the best online courses that would help kickstart your remote learning journey.
4 Online Courses That Will Upgrade Your Remote Working Skills
Table of Contents
1) Course: Be an Effective Hybrid or Virtual Employee
2) Course: Organize Yourself as a Remote Worker or Self-employed
3) Course: Remote Work Revolution for Everyone
4) Course: Collaborative Working in a Remote Team
1) Course: Be an Effective Hybrid or Virtual Employee
By: Linkedin
Emmy-winning producer and productivity author, Paul Rizzo would be guiding you through this course which provides an emphasis on creating a work routine and enhancing communication between your boss and colleagues in a digital work landscape. From an outsider’s perspective, working remotely might be a walk in the park — with the flexibility of wearing anything you’d want plus, the advantage of working from the comforts of one’s bed.
However, in reality, these so-called advantages might affect one’s chances of getting noticed at work due to the lack of communication with superiors and colleagues outside the work-bubble. Your contribution might not even be noticed so, it’s actually high time you learnt this course as Rizzo would also be walking you through the numerous ways in making you a good and productive employee while working in a remote and secluded environment.
What the course includes:
- Organizing your work week for maximum impact.
- Enhancing collaboration with your boss and colleagues.
(Source: LinkedIn)
2) Course: Organize Yourself as a Remote Worker or Self-employed
By: Coursera
When it comes to the topic of getting organized as a freelancer or remote worker, one couldn’t help but to realize the sheer amount of effort it takes to even clean up your workspace, cluttered with papers, stationeries and sometimes, empty food packets. As a freelancer or remote employee, organization is key to success and productivity. In this 2-hour long course provided by Coursera, one would learn how to manage themselves as freelancers or remote employee aided with a couple of useful tips and tricks of the trade.
These include, creating a browser work persona as well as setting up tasks, time and productivity management tools, using online share documents and video meetings. This all-in-one training would also prioritize productivity management techniques which is key in ensuring all your tasks are completed accordingly. Perfect for beginners, this course approaches a guided learning approach where you’ll work on the task provided simultaneously while the course is being taught.
What the course includes:
- Create a browser work persona, add task and productivity management tools.
- Use communication and productivity tools and techniques to manage shared work.
- Add focus and meditation with appropriate tools and techniques.
(Source: Coursera)
3) Course: Remote Work Revolution for Everyone
By: edX & Harvard University
Understandably, remote working is indeed a challenging task to execute. The long excruciating hours to complete all the given tasks within a specific time frame, just by staring at a computer screen is exhausting. Not to mention, the after-effects coming in the form of backaches and dry eyes. This might seem to appear as daunting and excruciating but with the proper training and a 360 degree change to your work habits, working from home either as a freelancer or a remote employee, could eventually turn out to be a good experience, nevertheless.
Join “Remote Work Revolution for Everyone”, a course by edX in collaboration with Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This course would enable you to be familiar with the key concepts of remote working and introduce relevant strategies that would enable you to be on top of your game.
For this free course, you would be taught on numerous ways to develop a conducive remote working environment for yourself with added tips on managing your team hence, helping you to excel in the virtual-work landscape. As a result of partaking in this course, you could create actionable steps to “relaunch” your team—focusing on new ways to stay connected, be collaborative, and remain productive—while meeting your own personal and organizational goals.
What the course includes:
- Understand the key elements of remote work and use your knowledge to successfully navigate the remote work environment.
- Develop strategies for yourself and your team, improving productivity, communication, and collaboration.
- Understand the types of trust required to be successful in remote working environments—and how to build it.
- Learn how to select the right digital tools to increase productivity and access to team members.
- Implement practices that will allow you to be an effective leader and successfully manage a remote team.
- Create a plan to relaunch your team into successful remotely working contributors.
(Source: edX & Harvard University)
4) Course: Collaborative Working in a Remote Team
By: Future Learn & University of Leeds
Undoubtedly, one of the many challenges remote working could bring is to collaborate and communicate with your team. Gone were the days of after-work discussions in the meeting room, as the usage of virtual working spaces have now revolutionized our working spaces, making it easier for a company to expand its horizons to hire remote workers from overseas too.
However, it is definitely not easy for one to maintain a substantial amount of contact with his or her colleagues. This just proves to show that the Zoom fatigue is real and is here to stay. But there are indeed ways to handle the lack of communication within your remote team by joining the “Collaborative Working in a Remote Team” course, hosted by Future Learn and the University of Leeds, one of the top universities in the United Kingdom.
In this course, as the title suggests, you’d be learning about using technology to effectively communicate with your remote working team. The key components would be examining strategies, technology and project management tools to ease the difficulties in working together with your teammates.
What the course includes:
- Challenges, opportunities and wellness of remote working.
- Getting ready to work remotely.
- Developing your remote working plan.
- Managing time, projects and workload.
- Getting ready to work remotely.
(Source: FutureLearn)
Conclusion
In short, working from home, be it as a freelancer or as a remote employee, could lead to extreme stress or worse, fatigue if one does not possess basic remote working skills that could be a life-changer for his or her productivity rate. The best part? We could learn these skills for free from the comforts of our own personal spaces. These courses could be lifechanging for many, so what are you waiting for? Sign up now to transform your remote working skills to ease your work-from-home journey!
