Emotional intelligence — EQ in short — is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our own and others’ emotions. Although often overlooked as a soft skill, EQ is becoming increasingly crucial in both personal and professional settings because the lack of EQ decreases our cognitive abilities, decision-making powers, and interpersonal skills, all of which can cost you a dear friend or a job.

Especially in workplaces, EQ is considered so crucial that a study by the Carnegie Institute of Technology found that while only 15 percent of financial success was due to technical skills, 85 percent was due to interpersonal skills, such as personality and communication. There is now even a competence test for measuring EQ in the workplace.

Whether you’re a student, a job seeker, an employee or a manager, there are many excellent online courses that can help you develop EQ at your leisure and from the very comfort of your own room.

Here is a list of free and affordable online courses on EQ that can get you started quickly.

Introductory Courses on Emotional Intelligence in General

1. Understanding and Developing Emotional Intelligence

One of the bestselling courses on Udemy, this course teaches on EQ and its importance for personal and professional development. Taught by an experienced psychotherapist, this course provides video lectures and downloadable exercises, to which you can apply what you learned. Although this course is primarily designed for current or aspiring managers, anyone who wants to improve their EQ is welcome to join.

College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
Price: $12.50 on sale ($49.99 regular price)
Financial aid or scholarships: NO
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: 44 minutes
Languages: English with subtitles in English and Italian
Vendor: Udemy

Note: Prices for all courses listed in this article are true on the date of publishing, but are subject to change.

2. 21 Day Crash Course in Emotional Intelligence

Taught by an award-winning psychologist, this course provides easily understood, highly applicable lessons on EQ. Designed for both personal and professional settings, this course will equip you with necessary psychological tools to understand and manage your emotions and influence and motivate others. Above all, this course promises deeper and more fulfilling relationships.

College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
Price: $12.50 on sale ($49.99 regular price)
Financial aid or scholarships: NO
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Languages: English with subtitles in English
Vendor: Udemy

3. Masterclass: Introduction to Emotional Intelligence

This course teaches how to develop EQ for both personal and professional settings. Containing videos, quizzes and exercises, this course lets you exercise what you’ve learned online in real life. Note that this course highly stresses the importance of actually working through the exercises provided. The instructor also teaches four other courses related to emotional intelligence — conflict management, decision-making, emotional intelligence in teams, and collaboration.

College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
Price: $25 on sale ($99.99 regular price)
Financial aid or scholarships: NO
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Languages: English with subtitles in English
Vendor: Udemy

4. Emotional Intelligence: Master Anxiety, Fear & Emotions

One of the bestselling courses on Udemy, this course provides the tools to understand and manage or influence your own and others’ emotions. This course focuses on three of the most undesirable emotions — uncertainty, anxiety and fear — and how you can develop EQ tools, such as neuro-linguistic programming technique, to redefine and control these emotions.

College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
Price: $33.75 on sale ($134.99 regular price)
Financial aid or scholarships: NO
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: 6 hours, 30 minutes
Languages: English with subtitles in English, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, and Thai
Vendor: Udemy

5. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Practitioner Cert (ACCREDITED)

This course provides a thorough overview of EQ that can help improve mental illnesses, such as anxiety or depression. By the end of this course, you will be able to not only define and identify EQ, but also be armed with skills to manage and control your and, possibly, others’ emotions. When you complete this course, note that you will be able to claim your Emotional Intelligence Practitioner Certificate of Accreditation from the Priority Academy and a Practitioner Accreditation Membership from the Complementary Therapists Accredited Association (CTAA).

College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
Price: $50 on sale ($199.99 regular price)
Financial aid or scholarships: NO
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: 9 hours
Languages: English with subtitles in English
Vendor: Udemy

Introductory Courses on Emotional Intelligence in Workplaces

6. Personality Types at Work

Offered by the University of Florida, this course teaches on different types of personalities that you might see in yourself or others at work. Designed for all types of job levels and positions, this course helps you understand yourself, your coworkers, and your organization, which leads to a better personal and business life. Whether you’re a job seeker, an entry-level member or a manager, you will learn how to bring the best out of yourself and others.

College credits: NO — Course Certificate only
Price: FREE to audit, but there’s a fee to earn and buy a Course Certificate
Financial aid or scholarships: YES
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: Approximately 15 hours
Languages: English with subtitles in English
Vendor: Coursera

7. High Performance Collaboration: Leadership, Teamwork and Negotiation

Offered by the Northwestern University, this course teaches aspiring or current managers to lead a successful team in an ever-changing business environment. This course covers the skills needed for successful leadership, teamwork and negotiation. Note that this course covers emotional intelligence as one of many topics in its greater theme of organizational leadership. Also, this course is the first of a two-part program on organizational leadership.

College credits: NO — Course Certificate only
Price: FREE to audit, but there’s a fee to earn and buy a Course Certificate
Financial aid or scholarships: YES
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: Approximately 14 hours
Languages: English with subtitles in English
Vendor: Coursera

8. Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

Offered by the Indian School of Business, this course teaches on the different components of emotional intelligence at workplaces. Designed for people in or seeking managerial roles, this course teaches how to identify and manage one’s own and other team members’ emotions and lead the team to bring out better outcomes. Note that this course is the fifth of a five-part program on business technology management.

College credits: NO — Course Certificate only
Price: FREE to audit, but there’s a fee to earn and buy a Course Certificate
Financial aid or scholarships: YES
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: Approximately 10 hours
Languages: English with subtitles in English
Vendor: Coursera

9. Human Behavior for Technical People

Designed for people with technical minds, this course teaches on how to work with people who are different from you. Starting with some major concepts in the study of personal psychology, such as defense mechanisms and the conscious and unconscious minds, you will learn about different types of personality types and personality tests. Then, you will use that knowledge to understand and get better at communication, group dynamics, and emotional intelligence.

College credits: NO — Certificate only
Price: 10-day free trial and then $35 billed monthly or $299 billed annually for Personal plan; $449 billed annually for Premium plan
Financial aid or scholarships: NO
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: 3 hours, 17 minutes
Languages: English
Vendor: Pluralsight

10. Leadership Skills for New Managers

Designed for people seeking managerial roles, this course explores leadership skills needed to become a manager and how to master them. You’ll learn about the management mindset, common failures for managers, different styles of leadership, emotional intelligence of oneself and others, setting goals and boundaries for the entire team, and more.

College credits: NO
Price: $23 on sale ($29 regular price), or $25 a month for the Creator Pass
Financial aid or scholarships: NO
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: Approximately 3 hours
Languages: English
Vendor: Creative Live

Online Programs on Emotional Intelligence

11. Foundations of Positive Psychology Specialization

Offered by the University of Pennsylvania, this program teaches on the key theories and application in the field of Positive Psychology, a branch of psychology that focuses on people’s potentials to reach positive aspects of life, such as happiness, well-being and flourishing. Taught by Martin E.P. Seligman, a professor of psychology and founder of the study of Positive Psychology, this five-part program will help develop emotional stability in both personal and professional lives.

The 5 courses:

Course 1: Positive Psychology: Martin E. P. Seligman’s Visionary Science

Course 2: Positive Psychology: Applications and Interventions

Course 3: Positive Psychology: Character, Grit and Research Methods

Course 4: Positive Psychology: Resilience Skills

Course 5: Positive Psychology Specialization Project: Design Your LIfe for Well-Being

College credits: NO — Specialization Certificate only
Price: FREE to audit, but there’s a fee to earn and buy a Specialization Certificate
Financial aid or scholarships: YES
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: Approximately 4 months (6 hours/week suggested)
Languages: English with subtitles in English, Spanish, German, and Japanese
Vendor: Coursera

12. Introspection and Mindfulness for Technologists

Designed specifically for people with technical minds, this program teaches the basic concepts of EQ. By the end of the program, you will understand different personality types, contribute to a more encouraging and productive work culture, and understand and manage your own and others’ emotions.

College credits: NO — Certificate only
Price: 10-day free trial and then $35 billed monthly or $299 billed annually for Personal plan; $449 billed annually for Premium plan
Financial aid or scholarships: NO
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: Approximately 17 hours
Languages: English
Vendor: Pluralsight

13. The Science of Happiness at Work

Offered by the University of California Berkeley, this program will cover research-based, personal and communal benefits of experiencing happiness at work, how to measure happiness at work, tools to understand and manage EQ and ways to build a more cooperative and collaborative workplace. The program offers three graduate-level courses.

The 3 courses:

Course 1: The Foundations of Happiness at Work

Course 2: Mindfulness and Resilience to Stress at Work

Course 3: Empathy and Emotional Intelligence at Work

College credits: NO — Professional Certificate only
Price: $402.30 on sale ($447 regular price)
Financial aid or scholarships: NO
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: 2–4 months
Languages: English
Vendor: edX

14. Inspired Leadership Specialization

Offered by the Case Western Reserve University, this program teaches aspiring or current managers or leaders how to build better relationships and positive approaches to leadership. While all five courses of the program involve EQ to some degree and form, for those who are only interested in EQ, the first course is the most focused on emotional intelligence.

The 5 courses:

Course 1: Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence

Course 2: Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change

Course 3: Conversations That Inspire: Coaching Learning, Leadership and Change

Course 4: Leading Positive Change through Appreciative Inquiry

Course 5: Be a Leader, Develop a Leader

College credits: NO — Specialization Certificate only
Price: FREE to audit, but there’s a fee to earn and buy a Specialization Certificate
Financial aid or scholarships: YES
Mobile learning: YES
Self-paced learning: YES
Flexible deadlines: YES
Time needed for completion: Approximately 8 months (3 hours/week suggested)
Languages: English with subtitles in English, Arabic, French, Ukrainian, Chinese (Simplified), Portuguese (Brazilian), Turkish, Hindi, Romanian, Kazakh, German, and Spanish
Vendor: Coursera

For more online courses, check TUN’s list of curated classes, or use the online classes search engine to find the best online courses in any subject.

Best Online Classes and Programs on Emotional Intelligence