Best Online Leadership Classes

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) offers top-tier leadership development courses in all formats—live, onsite, blended learning—and across all leadership dimensions, from basic supervisory and management skills to team leadership.

We chose CCL as best overall because it's dedicated to research-based leadership development, and its Leadership Development Program is the “longest-running program of its kind in the world.”

CCL offers a five-day, 20-hour version of the course session titled The Effective Leader, targeted to mid- and senior-level managers who want to develop leadership mastery. This CCL course has an average of one instructor for every 12 participants.

CCL courses are hands-on, with lectures, discussions, feedback, polls, and lots of classroom interaction between instructors and learners. The Effective Leader virtual course costs $4,500, which may be too expensive for those paying for their own training or smaller businesses. Mid- and senior-level managers wishing to attend the class may want to ask their employer if they can expense all or part of the training costs.

CCL also offers numerous online leadership classes such as Frontline Leader Impact, Lead 4 Success, Leading Strategically Experience, and Maximizing Your Leadership Potential. These virtual leadership courses range in price from $1,500 to $7,000, which is cheaper than completing an MBA program.

Additionally, CCL can bring its leadership training to an organization for firms that want to host a class virtually (or onsite) for a group of existing managers. The prices vary depending on the content, number of attendees, length, and format of the course.

Coursera offers affordable, university-based leadership courses that don’t require prerequisites, perfect for new managers who need in-depth training. Its top-rated leadership class, Strategic Leadership and Management Specialization, is designed for those new to supervision and management.

The Strategic Leadership and Management Specialization includes a series of seven online leadership classes taught by university professors, and is hosted entirely online. Membership to Coursera, required to attend the course, costs between $49 and $79 per month for enrolling in a single course. At $49, the entire series of seven classes would cost the student less than $400.

At the end of the online leadership class, the participant receives a leadership certificate from the university after completing a hands-on project. As a student, you can choose to sign up for one or all of the seven classes, and those who simply wish to view the materials can audit the course for free. It’s a low-cost way to attend college.

For businesses looking to develop supervisors, managers, and leaders, annual memberships at $399 can eliminate the need for an internal corporate training department. Otherwise, the individual course prices are affordable enough for aspiring supervisors and job candidates to pay for as part of their own leadership self-development.

This course is conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has 4.8 stars out of 5 from nearly 6,000 ratings.

LinkedIn members have access to hundreds of classes through the company's LinkedIn Learning platform, including leadership classes that are self-paced and affordable.

The benefit of online leadership classes with LinkedIn Learning is that the learner has mobile access to the course, which is great for busy managers. Upon completion, attendees receive a certificate and leadership badge to display on their LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn members can purchase access to the entire LinkedIn Learning Premium catalog for $39.99 per month.

In addition, each participant has full access to transcripts, exercise files, quizzes, and frequently asked questions. These tools can be used on the job as existing managers practice their new leadership skills with their teams. Best of all, if attendees don’t like the course or find they’re not using it, they can cancel LinkedIn Learning within 7 days and get their money back.

The affordability of this LinkedIn Learning online leadership class makes it great for aspiring leaders who want to validate and build their leadership skills. Smaller employers without a training department may consider purchasing their managers a LinkedIn Learning Premium subscription for $379.99 per employee per year, and assigning this course to all existing managers as a means of expanding their team’s leadership skills.

We picked TrainUp as the best self-paced class because it offers e-learning courses online, including video-based online leadership classes like Leadership Essentials for New Managers. This online leadership class includes nine video modules for $319.

TrainUp is the online leader in self-paced, video-based online training, offering over 300,000 e-learning titles with over 500 online leadership classes. They’ve sold training content to 90% of Fortune 500 firms and the programs it offers are robust, well-designed, and affordable, ranging in price from about $75 to $499 per course for leadership topics.

In the leadership training arena, TrainUp provides more timely topics than some other online leadership class providers, such as leading innovation and gender and leadership. Course timeframes vary. Some of the TrainUp online leadership classes are as short as 19 minutes, whereas others provide several hours of leadership instruction. 

TrainUp also offers affordable e-learning bundles, such as the Leadership Development Program, powered by MIT, which includes 198 videos and costs only $229. Individuals can sign up, browse courses, pay discounted rates, and track their progress online. Businesses can purchase an account that offers a custom learning portal for their staff, making TrainUp their one-stop-shop for leadership training as well as other topics like business skills, finance training, HR, and IT.

The American Management Association (AMA) offers 71 different leadership courses, with topics covering leadership preparation, team development, leader influence, and inspiring extraordinary performance.

If you prefer live instruction to self-paced, Preparing for Leadership might be a good choice. It’s conducted in either two live-online lessons or two in-person class days. During class sessions you’ll discuss scenarios, role-play various leadership situations, and complete leadership assessments. It costs between $2,395 and $2,695 depending on whether you or your organization is a member of the American Management Association.

AMA also offers women’s leadership certification courses, courses in executive leadership skills, and specific leadership topics like critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and leadership communications.

Individual membership with AMA costs $239 per year, with access to all available courses in the training library. Membership provides discounts on all courses (including the online leadership classes) making it a worthwhile investment.Members receive access to leadership research and best practices, leadership skill assessments, and AMA publications that cover management topics.

Joining the American Management Association with a corporate membership costs $2,495 annually for up to 10 employees. It’s a solid option for organizations that want managers to participate in interactive learning facilitated by management industry experts.

The Leadership Training for Nonprofit Professionals, available through Nonprofit Ready, is a high-quality leadership class that is free to anyone who does nonprofit or volunteer work.

This class provides a great start for people entering the leadership field, or those who want to step up into a people-management role in the nonprofit sector. It provides over 40 online leadership resources as well as self-paced instruction, on topics like:

• Hiring and managing a team
• Transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager
• Developing a leadership plan

As a division of the Cornerstone OnDemand Foundation, Nonprofit Ready offers over 500 free learning resources for the nonprofit sector. Cornerstone is a high-quality human capital organization that offers professional learning resources and leadership training content in addition to HR tools and resources across multiple for-profit industries and government.

Udemy offers hundreds of affordable leadership courses taught by experienced leadership experts.

Courses on Udemy are available to anyone, worldwide. There are no prerequisites, and details are provided in each class description before payment. 

For example, the $17.99 Practical Leadership course has been purchased by nearly 160,000 students. It covers leadership theories, delegation, and team management. This online leadership class includes 7 downloadable resources and 2.5 hours of on-demand video that learners can access via TV or mobile phone. Once paid for, learners have lifetime access to the course and receive a certificate of completion once finished.

Udemy courses are best for those who wish to learn about leadership or want to provide proof to a manager that they’ve completed a class. Courses can vary from an hour to 20 hours or more, depending on how the instructor has set up the class.

Udemy courses are useful for business leaders who want to send their management staff to “training,” as the classes are affordable. Udemy offers a business subscription that costs $360 per year for up to 20 employees to access over 8,300 courses. Larger enterprises can contact Udemy for customized pricing.

With Udemy, it’s best to select a course based on participant feedback. Any course with a four out of five-star rating is likely to be solid. Even firms with a formalized leadership development program may want to source Udemy classes for specific leadership content such as delegation or communication skills.