The energy revolution in underway. Renewable energy is growing at an astounding pace - notably in electricity. Wind turbines and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems account for most new power plants built worldwide, and are essential to building a low-carbon and sustainable energy future. As a result, there are countless new opportunities in renewable electricity. This course provides a solid grounding in the basics of renewable electricity. We'll start with how electricity is measured, how electricity systems operate, and how renewable technologies like wind turbines and solar PV work. We'll then cover technical and market fundamentals: how and why renewables are driving change in electricity systems worldwide, how electricity systems are changing to accommodate all these new renewables, and what that all means for those seeking to understand and participate in the global transformation of electricity systems. This global transformation is just beginning; with knowledge gained from this course you'll be ready to jump on board. Course logo image credit: "Wind Turbine" icon courtesy of Vectors Point from the Noun Project.

Start-ups can benefit from a wide variety of financing options on the path to profitability, but how do you know which one to choose? This course explores different financing models, including bootstrapping, organic growth, debt and risk capital, and also provides a clear overview of equity financing including the key types of investors: angels, venture capital, and crowdfunding. You’ll learn about terms, and term sheets, exit modes and what exit strategy might be best for you. By the end of this course, you’ll have an understanding of what success looks like and how it can be financed. You’ll also be ready for the capstone project, in which you will get feedback on your own pitch deck, and may even be selected to pitch to investors from venture capital firms.

In this 1-hour long project-based course, you will learn how to - create your twitter account - navigate twitter's dashboard - understand twitter terms and activities. Note: This course works best for learners who are based in the North America region. We’re currently working on providing the same experience in other regions.

With completion of this project, beginners who have never used Pinterest or Canva will be able to review analytics on Pinterest campaigns and make adjustments if necessary. Throughout the project, you will be able to identify basic marketing techniques, like defining your target audience, to make the most out of each paid online advertisement. You will also be able to identify different types of campaigns and the potential outcomes of each. Each campaign with a different goal will have different analytics, so learning to understand what the different terms mean will lead to more effective campaigns and a better understanding of which type of conversion will work for each particular ad. We will be designing an ad based on a children’s crayon company and will learn how to market a campaign according to the target audience for that product.

Once you have hired good employees, the next step that successful people managers take is to develop the full potential of their employees. Performance management is a process that helps managers achieve the goal of getting the best from their employees. In this third course in the Human Resources for People Managers specialization, we will discuss the skills and key processes you will need to develop your employees to attain department and organizational goals. These skills will include setting clear expectations, providing positive and corrective feedback, and delivering an effective performance appraisal.

This course will improve your ability to influence people in situations where you cannot use formal authority. You will learn about effective ways to build, develop, and sustain a power base in your organization. You will also learn influence tactics that enable you to be more persuasive and influential in working with your superiors, peers, and even subordinates. In addition, you will learn how to build and maintain high-quality relationships to further maximize your informal power and ability to influence others. Importantly, you will distinguish between influence and manipulation and learn how to protect yourself from the unwanted influence of others. The influence strategies you learn in this course will make you a more confident and influential leader, presenter, and decision-maker. You will more effective in pitching business ideas to your superiors, influencing customers, and building coalitions across stakeholders. This course will not only give you strategic guidance on how to develop and maintain your network for influence and power, but we will also equip you with specific tactics and strategies that are proven to work for gaining power and influencing people.

In this 1-hour long guided tutorial, you will learn how to set up a business profile on Twitter. Note: This tutorial works best for learners who are based in the North America region. We're currently working on providing the same experience in other regions.

Appreciative Inquiry is a collaborative and constructive inquiry process that searches for everything that gives life to organizations, communities, and larger human systems when they are most alive, effective, creative and healthy in their interconnected ecology of relationships. To appreciate, quite simply, means to value and to recognize that which has value—it is a way of knowing and valuing the best in life. In the language of Positive Organizational Scholarship it means a research focus—a positive bias—seeking fresh understanding of dynamics described by words like excellence, thriving, abundance, resilience, or exceptional and life-giving. In this context the word appreciate means to value those things of value—it is a mode of knowing often connected to the idea of esthetic appreciation in the arts. To appreciate also means to be grateful or thankful for—it is a way of being and maintaining a positive stance along the path of life's journey. And not incidentally, to appreciate is to increase in value too. Combining the three—appreciation as a way of knowing, as a way of being and as an increase in value– suggests that Appreciative Inquiry is simultaneously a life-centric form of study and a constructive mode of practice. As a form of study, Appreciative Inquiry focuses on searching systematically for those capacities and processes that give life and strength and possibility to a living system; and as a constructive mode of practice, it aims at designing and crafting human organizations through a process in which valuing and creating are viewed as one, and where inquiry and change are powerfully related and understood as a seamless and integral whole Leading Positive Change through Appreciative Inquiry is a course dedicated to advancing our understanding and skill in leading strength-based change and on how to create, foster and manage organizations in which people thrive and perform at their best.

The simple spreadsheet is one of the most powerful data analysis tools that exists, and it’s available to almost anyone. Major corporations and small businesses alike use spreadsheet models to determine where key measures of their success are now, and where they are likely to be in the future. But in order to get the most out of a spreadsheet, you have the know-how to use it. This course is designed to give you an introduction to basic spreadsheet tools and formulas so that you can begin harness the power of spreadsheets to map the data you have now and to predict the data you may have in the future. Through short, easy-to-follow demonstrations, you’ll learn how to use Excel or Sheets so that you can begin to build models and decision trees in future courses in this Specialization. Basic familiarity with, and access to, Excel or Sheets is required.

Easil is a free, user-friendly platform which allows you to create informative and eye catching designs to market your products, events, or services. Known for their “drag-and-drop” features, Easil gives you the ability to truly customize each of your ads to meet your marketing needs. Easil has a library of free templates available to use, which makes creating ads and marketing campaigns a breeze. With social media’s heavy influence and presence in today’s society, it is important to create a strong social media presence when advertising your company. This will help to ensure target market engagement and keep your customers up to date on your current sales, projects, and events. In this project, we will use Easil to create social media posts to help boost online presence and increase customer interaction. In addition, we will design a customer loyalty punch card which our customers can use to keep track of their purchases and rewards. This project will teach you about some of the many features of Easil while also giving you the freedom to explore your own creativity. Note: This course works best for learners who are based in the North America region. We’re currently working on providing the same experience in other regions.