courses on a resume

• Career Development

How to List Online Courses on a Resume (Examples and Tips)

If you’re one of the millions of people who pursue continuing education through online courses – congratulations! In an ever-evolving economy where new technology can quickly render old skills obsolete, it’s vital for employees to continually upgrade their skills. In addition, employers appreciate workers who are invested in their own skill sets. However, those online courses and certifications may pose a challenge for your resume if you decide to seek a new job. In this post, we will explain how to list online courses on a resume the right way.

What are online courses?

The term online courses typically refers to MOOCs. MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses, are the leading source of non-academia education and professional development. You’ve probably heard of some of the more popular MOOC websites, like Lynda, Udemy, and Coursera. But there are actually hundreds more!

When you browse MOOCs, you will be inundated with so many options for ways to develop professionally. The courses, though delivered through the sites listed above, are actually designed by leading global companies and ivy league colleges. There are short- and long-term professional certification courses, online Master's degrees, and in-depth skill development courses. 

The true benefit of MOOCs though? They’re open-source. Meaning the content is free to access, and the certifications are still professionally verified. If you want to advance your career but don’t have the means or time to go back to school for a degree, online courses through MOOCs are excellent to know about. 

Here are some of the other popular online services that offer courses :

Khan Academy

Should you List Online Courses on a Resume?

You might be wondering whether you should list online courses on your resume. Does it add value – or is it even worth listing online courses on your resume? Or any online studies, for that matter?

The answer is – Yes!

The world is changing – faster than most of us realize. Today’s skills often have a short shelf-life, and smart employees will recognize the need to upgrade their talents. That’s the best way to ensure that you maintain and enhance your value as an employee. In the end, that value is what makes employers want to hire you.

Of course, most of us would struggle to hold down a job and go to a traditional college at the same time. Fortunately, the rise of the internet has presented workers with alternative options for continuing education.

Why is it important to show online courses on a resume?

Any way that you are able to showcase professional development on a resume is encouraged. For many people, their careers don’t inherently follow a linear path, which can make a resume appear less strong. However, if you have a section in your resume to describe professional development, you can list out your online courses, adding value. 

Online courses are appreciated by recruiters because usually for someone to enroll, it means they have an authentic desire to grow professionally. It also shows an affinity for keeping up with market and industry trends. 

For example, the field of UX design has become very popular recently. In that time, the ethics and standards have also changed significantly. If someone entered UX in the early 2000s and has kept the same job, a recruiter might question the relevance of their insight. If that same candidate also showed professional development courses throughout the last twenty years, it would indicate that they are up to date with trends and have likely obtained the skills to produce appropriate content. 

How to List Online Courses on Your Resume

MOOCs, including sites like Lynda, Udemy, and Coursera, offer workers valuable education, new or enhanced skills, and certifications that can carry real value in the marketplace. More importantly, employers need to be able to see how you’ve tried to keep pace with skillset changes. For all those reasons, you need to know how to list online courses on your resume.

Keep in mind that online courses are a recent phenomenon. That means that some employers may not understand their relevance – or even give them much credence. If you know how to list online courses on your resume, however, you can overcome those challenges. 

These tips can help.

Choose Relevant Coursework

First, it’s important to be selective when you list online courses on your resume. You may include continuing education courses on a resume , but that doesn’t mean that the employer needs to hear about every class you take.

Instead, think about the skills you need for the job you’re seeking. Which courses provided skills that directly relate to that job? Those are the courses that you want to emphasize in your resume. Try to tailor your list as much as possible, for maximum impact.

Don’t Include Any Courses That Could Be Considered “Beginning-Level”

Skip any courses that might present you as a novice in that skill area. So, if you took a course introducing students to PowerPoint, for example, you can leave it off your resume. Its inclusion would mark you as a beginner and detract from your other areas of expertise. In short, only include courses that enhance your credibility as an expert in your field.

Some other beginner-level certs that might be most effective when omitted are the use of Microsoft Word, the Google Suite, or how to organize files on your computer. Your resume should be reserved for your proudest achievements. A recruiter might get the wrong idea about you if you consider using Word as a proud achievement. 

Use online courses to advance your career

If you are interested in changing careers or pursuing a promotion at work, use online courses to your advantage! One of the biggest setbacks professionals face when trying to make a big career change is that a lot of the time, they don’t quite have the experience or meet the qualifications. Online courses can offset that. 

Perhaps you don’t have five years of data analysis experience on top of your project management job. But, if you took an inline certification course in professional data analysis, you could still come out as a top candidate. 

Choose Your Placement Wisely

Be smart about where you list online courses on your resume. Sure, they’re educational in nature, but that doesn’t mean that they belong in the education section of your resume .

Formal education is just that: formal. That includes university degrees and other college or trade school accomplishments. List those achievements in your education section, and then create a different section for your continuing education efforts. 

We recommend using a title like "Professional Development", "Certifications", or "Professional Training" (or something similar) to highlight these online courses and skills.

(We wrote a good post on including certifications on your resume .)

You can use that section to list online courses on your resume, as well as other professional development. Try to limit those courses and skills to no more than five or six. You can include everything from online courses to technical certifications in this section.

Depending on the relevance of these courses to the job you’re applying for, you can choose to include the section on either the front page near the top, or towards the bottom. 

Example of Online Courses on a Resume

Bachelor of Arts, Communications – Seattle University

Professional Development & Affiliations

Excel for Marketers – Lynda.com

Marketing Courses – UC Berkeley Extension

Affiliations – National Association of Sales Professionals, Think LA, SF BIG, IAA Board SF

Here is an example on a resume:

Focus on How You’ve Used Those Skills

How you list online courses on your resume matters too. While you might be tempted to just use a dry list of your certifications and other continuing education, don’t. Those skill enhancements are basically meaningless without context. In other words, you need to do more than just list them; you need to showcase their value.

The best way to do that is to cite projects or tasks where you have used those skills. So, for example, if you received software certification of some kind, include a project that involved that skill.

That helps to flesh out the coursework and demonstrate its value to any prospective employer. It might require a little more creativity and thought on your part, but the results will be well worth the added effort.

Closing Thoughts

When you know how to list online courses on a resume, you can enhance your image as an expert in your field. At the same time, you will also demonstrate a passion for your industry. Just remember to focus intently on showcasing value. That will help any potential employer to better understand why you’re the best candidate for the job!

Recommended reading:

How to Make Your Resume Stand Out in 2023

50 Resume Dos and Don’ts You Need to Know in 2023

Including Professional Development on a Resume (Examples)

Emma Elizabeth, Resume Writer, Emma Elizabeth, Resume Writer

Emma is a certified employment specialist with over 6 years of experience in career mentorship and employment training. With an affinity for technical writing, Emma is passionate about developing training, policy, and procedure manuals. In 2020 she helped design Colorado’s first state-certified training program for people with disabilities entering the workforce.

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How to List Coursework on a Resume

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Who should include coursework on a resume?

How to list coursework on a resume, tips for including relevant coursework, templates for listing coursework on a resume.

Listing coursework on your resume is most effective when you are applying for a job and you don’t have a lot of experience, or if you are applying for a job that requires specific course completion. If you recently graduated from high school, college or a trade school, you may not have a lot of work-related experience. This article will show you how to include coursework on your resume to highlight your knowledge as a primary qualification. 

Recent graduates or people changing careers may not have enough related experience. This is the perfect opportunity to list coursework instead of experience. Before you can impress a hiring manager with your skills and talents, you first need to get an interview. Without showing experience on a resume, it might be difficult to reach that first step.

Be sure to include only the courses relevant to the position you are applying to, such as electives in business marketing, child psychology or medical terminology. If you completed a practicum or job shadowing as part of your coursework, be sure to include that also. 

By showing competence in specific areas with a coursework resume, you could potentially interview and impress the hiring manager with your qualifications and personality.

There are a few steps to follow to include coursework on your resume:

1. First, list relevant courses that show experience

For example, if you are applying for a job in education, you can list courses in child development, child psychology and any other classes that will show experience working with children.

2. Second, add internships to your resume

Many courses require you to complete summer internships that might not pay but offer experience in your field. For example, if you are applying for a law firm job, include your internship working as a file clerk or transcriptionist. During these internships, you probably learned to answer phones, talk with clients and specific legal terminology. Listing this on your resume shows you have a knowledgeable background working with attorneys, even if you might not have paid employment experience. 

3. Third, include relevant class projects on your resume or in your portfolio

While attending school, you probably completed several class projects. For example, if you are looking for a business marketing job, include project information where you learned marketing techniques. If you have pictures or examples of brochures and data analysis charts, you might want to include these as an attachment with your resume or take them in your portfolio when you go for an interview. 

4. Fourth, incorporate extracurricular activities and volunteer work

Even if you have never worked as a paid employee in the field you are applying for, you might have completed extracurricular activities or volunteer work. For example, if you are applying for a job with a newspaper, include your experience working on the yearbook for both high school and college. If you wrote articles for your school newspaper, include this experience and even some writing samples.

When including relevant coursework on a resume, you need to think about the best placement and how to prioritize highlighted courses. You should also include your GPA if it portrays your hard work, and incorporate online classes and extracurricular activities like volunteer work if it’s in the field you are applying for. 

Here are a few tips to consider when you are writing your resume:

List the school followed by the relevant coursework

When writing your resume, you need to determine where to include relevant coursework. The best place to include these classes is after listing the high school, college or technical school you attended.

Prioritize important classes 

You do not need to include every class on your transcript. Instead, choose relevant classes for the position you are applying for. If you are applying for a variety of jobs, you might need to change the courses on your resume for different applications.

Include your GPA 

If you have a 3.0 or higher GPA in your major area of study, include this as part of your resume. If you graduated with honors, you might want to include those details as well.

List relevant online courses

Many classes are taken online, and you should include the courses that are relevant on your resume. Just because you didn’t learn the material in a classroom setting doesn’t mean it’s not important. Including online courses also shows competency with computer skills. 

Show extracurricular activities

If you completed volunteer work as part of a class or with an organization, include these details on your resume to portray team experience and successfully working to reach a specific goal. 

Since you are probably listing coursework because you don’t have much experience, try to place this information near the top of your resume. If you are changing careers, you might want to list some job experience and highlight the relevant coursework near the middle with your education. There are several different ways to list coursework on your resume, but you need to make sure this content is organized and easy to read. 

You can use these templates when you are writing your own resume:

No relevant job experience:

College, University, or Tech School     

Anytown, State

Dates of attendance

GPA (if it’s above a 3.0)

Relevant coursework

Limited job experience:

Degree, Name of College, University or Tech School

Relevant coursework: (list 3 to 5 classes)

Although it may seem strange to list coursework on a resume, when you are trying to highlight your credentials and you don’t have relevant job experience, you need the extra help to secure an interview. Once you meet with the hiring manager, you can offer examples of how your coursework and experiences in school make you the right person for the job. 

How To List Online Courses on Resume & 5 Reasons You Should

Why mentioning online courses on your resume can help you stand out

As the US job market became increasingly competitive during lockdown, many people turned to online courses to differentiate themselves from similar applicants.

It’s a smart strategy!

Online courses and certificate programs are an excellent way to build your skills and make yourself more marketable to employers.

If you’re looking to switch careers, online courses can be especially helpful in getting your foot in the door.

The best part?

You can study exactly the topics you need on your own time for free or for a small fee, without shelling out $100K+ for an MBA.

In this article, we explain:

• Why you should include online courses on your resume
• How to select online courses that match your career objectives
• Where to list online courses on your resume
• Where to find reputable online course providers

Why should I include online courses on my resume?

Clients often ask us whether including an online course on their resumes is a good use of space.

While we don’t recommend taking several courses just to beef up your resume, pursuing relevant courses accomplishes the following:

1) Demonstrates that you actively pursue career growth and development, signaling that you’ll likely be an engaged employee

2) Allows you to learn new skills and hone existing skills, making you more effective on the job

3) Enables you to differentiate yourself from similar applicants , increasing your chances of landing interviews

4) Serves as a natural way to incorporate relevant keywords, helping your resume pass ATS scans

5) Provides a productive way to fill a career gap,  showing that you still prioritized your career during your time off

Which online courses should I take?

You should select online courses that match your career objectives.

To best explain what we mean, we’ll consider two scenarios: jobseekers who are looking to grow in their current roles and jobseekers who are looking to switch careers.

Jobseekers looking to grow in current role

If you are looking to grow in your current field, you’ll want to select courses that allow you to be more effective on the job.

For example, if you are a business analyst and often work with spreadsheets, you might consider courses that teach you how to:

• Create models that your team can use to quickly consolidate data
• Pull data from your company’s data warehouse using SQL
• Write VBA programs to run automated macros

By building these skills and applying them on the job, you’ll effectively position yourself for a promotion.

If you’re more senior and have recently started leading your own team, you might consider courses that hone your leadership skills.

As a result, you’ll be more confident in your management abilities manage your team more effectively.

Jobseekers looking to switch careers

If you are looking to switch careers, online courses can be especially helpful because they will:

1) Demonstrate that you are serious about pursuing the career change – not just trying to test the waters

2) Prepare you to hit the ground running – especially if you are entering a technical role

3) Enable you to position your resume effectively

The third point we mentioned can be key.

Career-switchers often struggle to land interviews because recruiters don’t see their experience as related to the role they’re recruiting for or their resumes get filtered out by ATS (due to a lack of relevant keywords).

Online courses can help you naturally add the relevant keywords into your resume.

For example, if you are working in sales and want to pursue a role in real estate finance, you might struggle to incorporate phrases with real estate-related keywords such as:

• Leveraged Excel to create underwriting models…
• Analyzed lending risks for new investment opportunities…
• Prepared deal summary memorandums…
• Researched real estate market trends…

Without demonstrating that you are both familiar with industry terminology and able to fulfil the position requirements, you likely won’t land an interview.

A candidate looking to transition to real estate, for example, might consider the following options whose titles include target keywords:

Modeling Risks and Realities  from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania on Coursera (free)

Socially Responsible Real Estate Development from MIT on edX (free)

Commercial Real Estate Certificate from Cornell University’s eCornell (paid)

Where should I list online courses on my resume?

We recommend listing online courses in the Certifications or Professional Development sections on your resume.

You can add them to your resume by:

1) Listing the course titles and providers

2) Writing one or two bullet points summarizing what you learned in the course

Some people list online courses in the Education section.

We don’t recommend doing so because it can detract attention from your degree programs, which you should highlight more prominently.

Recruiters we work with have also pointed out an increasing trend of people making it seem like they graduated from “Cornell University” when they only took a two-week online course.

As such, it’s important to be transparent and make the nature of the course you took clear.

Recruiters know that many prestigious universities offer online courses and recognize their value.

However, a free MIT online course is simply not the same thing as earning a degree from MIT.

By separating your Education from your Certifications or Professional Development, you’ll avoid any confusion or appearance of manipulation.

Who are the best online course providers?

You should be able to find both free and paid online courses relevant to your niche.

Free online course providers to consider include:

Coursera offers free courses from top universities such as Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, Duke, Imperial College London, University of Michigan, and Google.

The website claims that "87% of people learning for professional development report career benefits like getting a promotion, a raise, or starting a new career" ( Coursera Learner Outcomes Survey 2019).

edEx  is another reputable online course provider, with free options from MIT, Harvard, University of California – Berkeley, and Boston University.

You'll find over 2,500 courses spanning computer science, foreign languages, data science, engineering, business, and humanities.

Paid online course providers to consider include:

eCornell offers certificate programs for hospitality management, real estate, data science, healthcare, and project management.

Harvard Business School Online

Harvard Business School Online courses cover topics including business analytics, strategy, entrepreneurship, financial accounting, leadership, and negotiations.

Whether you're looking to grow in your field or switch careers, online courses can help get your foot in the door.

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About the Author Matt Glodz

Matt Glodz is the Founder and Managing Partner of Resume Pilots and a Certified Professional Resume Writer. After studying business communication at Cornell University, Matt worked within Fortune 500 companies, where he noted that qualified candidates were frequently denied interview opportunities due to poorly written documents. At Resume Pilots, Matt combines his business and writing background - which includes prior work for a Chicago Tribune publication - to craft resumes that give his clients the best chance of landing interviews. He works with clients ranging from CEOs to recent graduates and has been writing resumes for over 10 years. He has been quoted on numerous business and career-related topics in outlets including Business Insider, CNBC, Fortune, Glassdoor, The Ladders, and Thrive Global.

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