As the final course in the Building Your Freelancing Career specialization, learners will build upon their fundamental skills from courses 1-4 to develop a fully fleshed out business plan, brand and financial model for their real freelancing business, or one they develop just for the purpose of determining whether or not they will be able to launch a new business venture. Once they have developed their plan, they will be able to submit them for peer review and completion of the specialization. CalArtians who do not see a "Sponsored by CalArts" notice when enrolling are encouraged to access this course and the specialization by joining through the Coursera for CalArts program linked in the course/specialization FAQ.

The Capstone Project is a service learning experience designed to apply the knowledge and skills developed in the three Specialization courses to a real world leadership and governance situation. It is also intended to develop the participant's capability to act as an agent for positive change in nonprofit organizations. To this end, you will analyze the leadership and governance effectiveness of a real board of directors in an organization of your own choosing (or, if that is not possible, data gathered from a real board provided by the course instructors). By the end of the Capstone Project, you will have produced a professional consulting report detailing your analysis and recommendations to improve board leadership and governance effectiveness. You will then present it to the board and advise them on implementing change. To learn more about this course, please watch the overview video by copying and pasting the following link into your web browser: https://goo.gl/GTWrN2 Keywords: Nonprofit; Nonprofit Sector; Voluntary Sector; Nonprofit Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, Volunteer Organizations, Leadership, Management, Governance, Board, Board of Directors, Performance, Effectiveness Capstone Project Overview: Weeks 1-3: This period will be spent choosing a board of a nonprofit organization and gathering information using two specially designed tools and resources: The SUNY Open textbook (to download the book copy and paste the following link into your browser: http://tinyurl.com/peolnjb), "Guidelines for Improving the Effectiveness of Boards of Directors of Nonprofit Organizations", and The Board Check-Up, online board performance self-assessment tool that can be accessed by copying and pasting this link into your browser: https://www.boardcheckup.com. Weeks 4-5: In this phase, the information gathered will be analyzed leading to an evaluation of the board's effectiveness in the different dimensions of board effectiveness examined in the Specialization courses. Weeks 6-8: In the final phase of the Project, the results of the analysis and recommendations for positive change will be brought together a specially prepared consulting report intended for the use of the board of the client organization.

Typeform is an online SaaS company that specializes in dynamic form building and online surveys. Typeform is used by large corporations and small businesses for a variety of different business operations. You will see Typeform used in analytics & reporting, collaboration, customer support, email marketing, lead generation, and so much more. Typeform works in conjunction with several well-known apps to seamlessly inegrate into your marketing & sales environment. By integrating Typeform into apps you’re currently using you will expand your business’ capacity for growth. This project is an introductory level course intended for business professionals who would like to collect employee feedback using interactive forms. The project will focus on the basics of creating an interactive form. We will learn about the different types of questions available, themes. and sharing our survey. At the end of the project the learner will be able to design their own professional dynamic form for collecting employee feedback. This project will talk briefly about sharing the survey with respondents. The focus of this project is helping learners to begin the process by familiarizing them with the platform and creating the survey using features available in the free version. Typeform values its user’s security and understands the need for rigorous security measures. Their infrastructure is hosted via Amazon Web Services (AWS) on servers located in Virginia and Frankfurt, Germany. You can view Typeform’s full security policy here: https://help.typeform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029259552-Security-at-Typeform

This course introduces students to the science of business analytics while casting a keen eye toward the artful use of numbers found in the digital space. The goal is to provide businesses and managers with the foundation needed to apply data analytics to real-world challenges they confront daily in their professional lives. Students will learn to identify the ideal analytic tool for their specific needs; understand valid and reliable ways to collect, analyze, and visualize data; and utilize data in decision making for their agencies, organizations or clients.

In the expression “creative thinking”, the keyword is not creativity; the keyword is thinking. With the help of great philosophers, you will rediscover the art of thinking. To help leaders to be rigorous even without figures, great philosophers have lots of ideas. Managers are invited to rediscover the art of thinking. They should understand the role of mental models, realize the importance of cognitive bias, agree on clear definitions and efficient criteria etc. Creativity demands the ability to unshackle ourselves from conventional ways of thinking, to "think outside the box". But we need to go a step further. Once outside the box, we need to construct a new box or boxes (that is, new intellectual frameworks or models) to help us structure our thinking. Only once we have done so can we generate truly game-changing ideas.

This introductory course is developed for high level business people (and those on their way) who want a broad understanding of new Information Technologies and understand their potential for business functions (e.g. marketing, supply change management, finance). This is not a course for people looking for guidance on how to become a deep technical expert or implement these technologies. From Blockchain over Artificial Intelligence to Virtual Reality technologies: This course will empower business leaders to embrace the concepts and bring the state of the art information technologies into their organizations to improve client and customer engagement and ultimately the bottom line of their businesses. Instead of digital disruption, the new technologies and management methods will become the foundation of a Digital Transformation journey for better customer relationship management and client satisfaction. The content is structured in a way that promotes discussions on challenges that business management and marketing functions face due to the rise of new technologies such blockchain, cryptocurrencies, internet of things (IoT), virtual, mixed and augmented reality (VR/AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and big data. This course will use case studies to explore frameworks, tools, and strategies that are already proven in the real world and prepare ourselves and our organizations to have the tools needed to succeed in a fast and changing world. This course is not a deep technical curriculum, but based on thousands of hours helping (often C-level) executives to grasp the technologies' potential in their own areas of expertise. This course is available in English.

In this course, we will create our account & user profile and explore four of the key features of Basecamp Personal. Once you complete this project, you will be able to continue using Basecamp for personal and professional project management. “Basecamp is the premier project management + internal communication tool for remote WFH teams worldwide.” Basecamp allows its users to seamlessly collaborate in real-time on a virtual platform. Professional teams that use Basecamp report increased productivity, better organization, and streamlined communication. It offers a wide variety of project management tools including: To-Do lists, automatic check-ins, scheduling, document hosting, and so much more. The platform centralizes work-related notifications which allows its users to stay focused on the task at hand. From executive leadership to individuals, Basecamp gives its users the tools to stay in touch without extra emails, phone calls, and meetings. Basecamp takes your data privacy and protection seriously. If you have questions or concerns regarding how Basecamp handles your data, their full security policy can be accessed here: https://basecamp.com/about/policies/security

By the end of this guided project, you will be fluent in creating Program Benefits artefacts for the delivery/ closing Phases for diverse programs. You will utilise a logical diagramming plan in an agile environment to develop the solution. This will enable you to identify and classify the required components for benefits transition and sustainment. Furthermore, it will help develop a structural model for learning about the field of Program Management. If you are interested in building up the knowledge leading to this guided project, the following is the link to: [ Developing Programme Management Blueprint with ClickUp] https://www.coursera.org/projects/program-blueprint This Guided Project is essential for individuals wanting to learn about the field, or looking to transition into working in Program Management. This guided project is designed to engage and harness your visionary and exploratory abilities. You will use proven models in an agile environment with ClickUp to engage in a hands-on learning experience.

This course is for you if you are looking to dive deeper into Six Sigma or strengthen and expand your knowledge of the basic components of green belt level of Six Sigma and Lean. Six Sigma skills are widely sought by employers both nationally and internationally. These skills have been proven to help improve business processes and performance. This course will take you deeper into the principles and tools associated with the "Define" and "Measure" phases of the DMAIC structure of Six Sigma. It is highly recommended that you complete the "Yellow Belt Specialization" and the course "Six Sigma and the Organization (Advanced)" before beginning this course. In this course, your instructors will introduce you to, and have you apply, some of the tools and metrics that are critical components of Six Sigma. This course will provide you with the advanced knowledge of team dynamics and performance, process analysis, probability, statistics, statistical distributions, collecting and summarizing data, measurement systems analysis, process and performance capability, and exploratory data analysis associated with Six Sigma and Lean. Every module will include readings, videos, and quizzes to help make sure you understand the material and concepts that are studied. Registration includes online access to course content, projects, and resources but does not include the companion text The Certified Six Sigma Green Belt Handbook (2nd edition). The companion text is NOT required to complete the assignments. However, the text is a recognized handbook used by professionals in the field. Also, it is a highly-recommended text for those wishing to move forward in Six Sigma and eventually gain certification from professional agencies such as American Society for Quality (ASQ).

Gain confidence when dealing with stakeholders of major projects by learning to identify and manage those that are involved in the project planning and delivery. This course will enable you to explore project governance in theory and practice. Through real life examples you’ll understand how the critical challenges of the governance in major projects are resolved. Being able to successfully manage risk and uncertainty in major projects is vital for their delivery. In this course you’ll learn to distinguish between risk and uncertainty and the role of risk register. You’ll identify the unique challenges of scope management in major projects and employ scope management tools and techniques that will facilitate your project planning. This course explores concepts analysed in the University’s Online MSc in Engineering Management. If you are interested to develop your skills further, take a look at our online degree.