free course on critical thinking

16 Best Free Online Critical Thinking Courses

Written by Argumentful

Critical thinking is one of the most fundamental skills you could focus on. In fact, these skills are so important that many educational institutions have listed them among their central goals. Critical thinking helps you sort the true from the false.

The bad news is that not many people own these skills. Einstein famously said:

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”

The good news though is that you can improve your thinking and you can do it without breaking the bank.

Below are listed 16 of the best free online critical thinking courses with details regarding their contents.

Go on, choose your preferred course and take action today! (You can thank me later😉!)

P.S. Apart from the general critical thinking courses, I’ve included 5 specific ones which focus on today’s burning issues- fake news and climate change , as well as correctly interpreting randomized clinical trials and screening trials. See numbers 12 to 16 below.

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Critical reasoning for beginners, critical thinking classes at fayetteville state university, logical and critical thinking, critical thinking: fundamentals of good reasoning, philosophy and critical thinking, critical thinking & problem solving, introduction to critical thinking and logic, teaching critical thinking through art with the national gallery of art.

• Critical thinking: Reasoned Decision Making

The Science of Everyday Thinking

Critical thinking at university: an introduction, making sense of news, sorting truth from fiction: civic online reasoning, making sense of climate science denial, thinking critically: interpreting randomized clinical trials, thinking critically series: interpreting screening trials.

Offered by : University of Oxford

Description :

4 hours, 6 modules

1: The Nature of Arguments

How to recognise arguments and what the nature of an argument is

2: Different Types of Arguments

Different types of arguments, in particular deductive and inductive arguments

3: Setting Out Arguments Logic Book Style

How to identify and analyse arguments, and how to set arguments out logic book-style to make them easier to evaluate

4: What is a  Good Argument? Validity and Truth

How to evaluate arguments and how to tell whether an argument is good or bad, focusing specifically on inductive arguments

5: Evaluating Arguments Part One

Evaluation of arguments – this time deductive arguments – focusing in particular on the notion of validity

6: Evaluating Arguments Part Two

Fallacies: bad arguments that can easily be mistaken for good arguments

Also available on YouTube and iTunes

Offered by : Fayetteville State University

24 videos, 24 hours

Lectures from Spring 2011 Critical Thinking classes at Fayetteville State University held by Gregory B. Sadler. The textbook used was Moore And Parker’s Critical Thinking 9th edition .

• Issues, claims, arguments
• Arguments and non-arguments
• Value Judgments
• Complex arguments, unstated premises
• Deductive and inductive arguments with implicit premises
• Deductive and inductive arguments
• Information sources
• Experts and appeal to authority
• Critical thinking and advertising
• Rhetorical devices

Offered by : University Of Auckland

8 Weeks of study, 4 hours weekly

• Identify common flaws in belief construction
• Recognise and reconstruct arguments
• Evaluate arguments as being good or bad
• Analyse arguments using basic logical tools
• Apply basic logical strategies in areas such as science, moral theories and law

Offered by : IsraelX

9 weeks, 4-6 hours per week

You can create a free account on edx.org and have access to the course for 2 months. After 2 months, you can pay £37 to get unlimited access to the course.

The objective of the course is to improve the student’s ability in the basic skills of critical thinking:

• how to recognize arguments,
• how to interpret them,
• how to evaluate them,
• how to construct them.

Lesson 1. What’s “Critical Thinking?” Lesson 2. What are Arguments Made Of? Lesson 3. From Premises to Conclusions Lesson 4. Recognizing Arguments: Introduction Lesson 5. Argument vs. The Text Containing It Lesson 6. Recognizing Conclusions Lesson 7. Arguments vs. Explanations Lesson 8. Argument Diagrams: Introduction Lesson 9. More about Argument Diagrams Lesson 10. Argument Diagrams: Examples Lesson 11. Hedges Lesson 12. Disclaimers Lesson 13. Examples Lesson 14. Rhetorical Language Lesson 15. Referential Attribution Lesson 16. Principles of Interpretation Lesson 17. Implicit Premises Lesson 18. What’s a Good Argument? Lesson 19. More Virtues of Arguments Lesson 20. Argument Ad Hominem Lesson 21. Argument Ad Verecundiam Lesson 22. Argument Ad Populum Lesson 23. Argument Ad Ignorantiam Lesson 24. Argument Ad Baculum and Ad Misericordiam Lesson 25. Venn Diagrams Lesson 26. Beyond Venn Lesson 27. Modus Ponens Lesson 28. Modus Tollens Lesson 29. Conditionals Lesson 30. Reductio Ad Absurdum Lesson 31. Process of Elimination Lesson 32. Separation of Cases Lesson 33. Truth Trees: An Example Lesson 34. How to Grow Truth Trees Lesson 35. Truth Trees: Another Example Lesson 36. Reflexive Relations Lesson 37. Symmetric Relations Lesson 38. Transitive Relations Lesson 39. Inductive Generalization Lesson 40. What’s a Good Sample? Lesson 41. The New Riddle of Induction Lesson 42. From Induction to Causation Lesson 43. Evaluating Causal Generalizations Lesson 44. Argument from Analogy: Basics Lesson 45. Argument from Analogy: Examples Lesson 46. Who Needs Analogues? Lesson 47. Inference to the Best Explanation Lesson 48. Experimentation Lesson 49. Building an Argument Lesson 50. Writing Up an Argument

Offered by : The University of Queensland

6 weeks, 1-4 hours per week

• How to think with clarity and rigour
• How to identify, analyse and construct cogent arguments
• How to think of solutions to the central problems of philosophy
• How to engage in philosophical conversations with others about topics that matter

Offered by : Rochester Institute of Technology

3 weeks, 4-6 hours per week

• How to perform strategic analysis and assessment
• How to perceive and assess a critical need and design a tailored solution
• How to identify key stakeholders and ensure their needs are met
• How to employ adaptive problem-solving
• How to work through obstacles collaboratively
• How to analyse failure to improve future performance

Offered by : Saylor.org Academy

This course will introduce you to critical thinking, informal logic, and a small amount of formal logic. Its purpose is to provide you with the basic tools of analytical reasoning, which will give you a distinctive edge in a wide variety of careers and courses of study. While many university courses focus on the presentation of content knowledge, the emphasis here is on learning how to think effectively. Although the techniques and concepts covered here are classified as philosophical, they are essential to the practice of nearly every major discipline, from the physical sciences and medicine to politics, law, and the humanities.

• Unit 1: Introduction and Meaning Analysis
• Unit 2: Argument Analysis
• Unit 3: Basic Sentential Logic
• Unit 4: Venn Diagrams
• Unit 5: Fallacies
• Unit 6: Scientific Reasoning
• Unit 7: Strategic Reasoning and Creativity

Offered by : Smithsonian Institution

16 weeks, 3-4 hours per week

• How to use Artful Thinking Routines to strengthen thinking.
• How to facilitate meaningful conversations in your classroom using art for artful learning and artful teaching.
• How to help learners of all levels develop more discerning descriptions, evidence-based reasoning, and meaningful questioning habits.
• Key strategies for using content information to push original thinking deeper.
• Exciting, immersive activities for any type of classroom.
• How to use online teaching resources from the National Gallery of Art, including downloadable Artful Thinking lesson plans
• Unit 0: Welcome (2 hours)
• Unit 1: Diving into Thinking Routines (3-4 hours)
• Unit 2: Observing and Describing (3-4 hours)
• Unit 3: Reasoning with Evidence (3-4 hours)
• Unit 4: Questioning and Investigating (3-4 hours)

Critical thinking: reasoned decision making

Offered by : Tecnológico de Monterrey

4 weeks, 5-8 hours per week

• Identify the theories that support critical thinking
• Employ a methodology for the application of critical thinking
• Relate the elements that make up the stages of critical thinking
• Analyse the standards of critical thinking practice
• Assess the responsibility of perpetuating the intellectual values of the resolution analysis
• Distinguish the vices of thought in decision making
• Apply critical thinking to groups

1. Thinking according to our times

1.1 Why critical thinking?

1.2 The exciting world of thinking and criticism

2. Evaluating our modes of thought

2.1 Intellectual values of a good thinker

2.2 Evaluating our critical thinking skills. Avoiding vices and biased thinking

3. Elements and standards of critical thinking

3.1 Elements of a critical thinking process

3.2 Standards to apply to our thinking modes

4. Articulating our decisions making process

4.1 The logic of our decisions and the behaviour derived from them

4.2 How to improve our critical thinking skills and become a fair-minded thinker

12 weeks, 2-3 hours per week

The course explores the psychology of our everyday thinking: why people believe weird things, how we form and change our opinions, why our expectations skew our judgments, and how we can make better decisions. We’ll discuss and debate topics such as placebos, the paranormal, medicine, miracles, and more.

You will use the scientific method to evaluate claims, make sense of evidence, and understand why we so often make irrational choices. You will begin to rely on slow, effortful, deliberative, analytic, and logical thinking rather than fast, automatic, instinctive, emotional, and stereotypical thinking.

• tools for how to think independently, how to be skeptical, and how to value data over personal experience.
• examining the mental shortcuts that people use and misuse, and apply this knowledge to help make better decisions, and improve critical thinking.

Offered by : University of Leeds

2 weeks, 4 hours weekly

• What is critical thinking?
• A model for critical thinking
• Why is critical thinking important at university?
• Challenges to thinking critically at university
• How can you improve your critical thinking?
• How will critical thinking help you at university?

Offered by : University of Hong Kong

4 weeks, 2-3 hours per week

This course will help you identify reliable information in news reports and become better informed about the world we live in. A discussion on journalism from the viewpoint of the news audience.

• What makes news? The blurred lines between news, promotion and entertainment.
• Why does news matter? Social sharing and the dynamics of the news cycles.
• Who provides information? How to evaluate sources in news reports.
• Where is the evidence? The process of verification.
• When should we act? Recognizing our own biases.
• How do we know what we know? Becoming an active news audience.

You’ll learn to:

• Distinguish news from opinion; media bias from audience bias; assertion from verification
• Apply critical thinking skills to examine the validity of information
• Contextualize the knowledge gained from news report
• Respond quickly to daily news events and make an informed decision

Offered by : Massachusetts Institute of Technology

9 weeks, 2-4 hours per week

Course aimed at fighting fake news and misinformation

Educators—from teachers to librarians—will learn about:

• New knowledge that can be applied in your lessons and resources for your own students.
• How to shift from ineffective information literacy practices towards the kinds of strategies employed by professional fact-checkers.

Unit 1: Search Like a Fact Checker

Unit 2: The Two Big Fact Checker Moves: Lateral Reading & Click Restraint

Unit 3: Evaluating Different Types of Evidence

Unit 4: Adapting Civic Online Reasoning

7 weeks, 2-4 hours per week

WEEK 1: Understanding The Climate Controversy During the first week of the course, we introduce the course content, interact with each other and complete an introductory survey. The week continues with an exploration of political consensus, the drivers and psychology of climate science denial and an overview of the controversy surrounding this topic.

WEEK 2: Global Warming Is Happening In week two, we will look at the indicators of global warming and myths related to temperature and glaciers.

WEEK 3: We Are Causing Global Warming Week three focuses on the ways in which humans cause climate change and the myths associated with the greenhouse effect and the rise in carbon dioxide.

WEEK 4: The Past Tells Us About The Future This week looks at the history of climate change in order to model future climate change. We also address myths related to models.

WEEK 5: We Are Feeling The Impacts Of Climate Change Week five covers climate feedbacks and the impacts of climate change on the environment, society and the weather.

WEEK 6 and 7: Responding to Denial The final weeks of the course look more closely at the psychology of science denial and debunking techniques. We also complete a peer assessment that asks students to practice debunking strategies on real myths that can be found in today’s media.

Approach: mini-lectures, video interviews, quizzes, activities, a peer assessed writing assignment, and readings.

Offered by : Stanford University

1 week, 2-3 hours

This course seeks to fulfil the clinical community’s need to improve skills in the critical evaluation of clinical research papers. Competency in critical appraisal skills can have a significant impact by improving clinical practice, quality of research projects, and peer-review of manuscripts and grants. The course will utilize efficient and engaging videos with relevant clinical examples to cover essential research methodology principles.

• Analyse the concepts of randomization and blinding in reducing bias.
• Develop strategies to critically appraise randomized clinical trials and determine if study results are valid.
• Analyse the key design features of screening studies.
• Develop strategies to critically appraise screening studies and determine if study results are valid.

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PHIL102: Introduction to Critical Thinking and Logic

Course introduction.

• Time: 40 hours
• College Credit Recommended ($25 Proctor Fee) -->
• Free Certificate

The course touches upon a wide range of reasoning skills, from verbal argument analysis to formal logic, visual and statistical reasoning, scientific methodology, and creative thinking. Mastering these skills will help you become a more perceptive reader and listener, a more persuasive writer and presenter, and a more effective researcher and scientist.

The first unit introduces the terrain of critical thinking and covers the basics of meaning analysis, while the second unit provides a primer for analyzing arguments. All of the material in these first units will be built upon in subsequent units, which cover informal and formal logic, Venn diagrams, scientific reasoning, and strategic and creative thinking.

Course Syllabus

First, read the course syllabus. Then, enroll in the course by clicking "Enroll me". Click Unit 1 to read its introduction and learning outcomes. You will then see the learning materials and instructions on how to use them.

Unit 1: Introduction and Meaning Analysis

Critical thinking is a broad classification for a diverse array of reasoning techniques. In general, critical thinking works by breaking arguments and claims down to their basic underlying structure so we can see them clearly and determine whether they are rational. The idea is to help us do a better job of understanding and evaluating what we read, what we hear, and what we write and say.

In this unit, we will define the broad contours of critical thinking and learn why it is a valuable and useful object of study. We will also introduce the fundamentals of meaning analysis: the difference between literal meaning and implication, the principles of definition, how to identify when a disagreement is merely verbal, the distinction between necessary and sufficient conditions, and problems with the imprecision of ordinary language.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.

Unit 2: Argument Analysis

Arguments are the fundamental components of all rational discourse: nearly everything we read and write, like scientific reports, newspaper columns, and personal letters, as well as most of our verbal conversations, contain arguments. Picking the arguments out from the rest of our often convoluted discourse can be difficult. Once we have identified an argument, we still need to determine whether or not it is sound. Luckily, arguments obey a set of formal rules that we can use to determine whether they are good or bad.

In this unit, you will learn how to identify arguments, what makes an argument sound as opposed to unsound or merely valid, the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning, and how to map arguments to reveal their structure.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 7 hours.

Unit 3: Basic Sentential Logic

This unit introduces a topic that many students find intimidating: formal logic. Although it sounds difficult and complicated, formal (or symbolic) logic is actually a fairly straightforward way of revealing the structure of reasoning. By translating arguments into symbols, you can more readily see what is right and wrong with them and learn how to formulate better arguments. Advanced courses in formal logic focus on using rules of inference to construct elaborate proofs. Using these techniques, you can solve many complicated problems simply by manipulating symbols on the page. In this course, however, you will only be looking at the most basic properties of a system of logic. In this unit, you will learn how to turn phrases in ordinary language into well-formed formulas, draw truth tables for formulas, and evaluate arguments using those truth tables.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 13 hours.

Unit 4: Venn Diagrams

In addition to using predicate logic, the limitations of sentential logic can also be overcome by using Venn diagrams to illustrate statements and arguments. Statements that include general words like "some" or "few" as well as absolute words like "every" and "all" – so-called categorical statements – lend themselves to being represented on paper as circles that may or may not overlap.

Venn diagrams are especially helpful when dealing with logical arguments called syllogisms. Syllogisms are a special type of three-step argument with two premises and a conclusion, which involve quantifying terms. In this unit, you will learn the basic principles of Venn diagrams, how to use them to represent statements, and how to use them to evaluate arguments.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 6 hours.

Unit 5: Fallacies

Now that you have studied the necessary structure of a good argument and can represent its structure visually, you might think it would be simple to pick out bad arguments. However, identifying bad arguments can be very tricky in practice. Very often, what at first appears to be ironclad reasoning turns out to contain one or more subtle errors.

Fortunately, there are many easily identifiable fallacies (mistakes of reasoning) that you can learn to recognize by their structure or content. In this unit, you will learn about the nature of fallacies, look at a couple of different ways of classifying them, and spend some time dealing with the most common fallacies in detail.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

Unit 6: Scientific Reasoning

Unlike the syllogistic arguments you explored in the last unit, which are a form of deductive argument, scientific reasoning is empirical. This means that it depends on observation and evidence, not logical principles. Although some principles of deductive reasoning do apply in science, such as the principle of contradiction, scientific arguments are often inductive. For this reason, science often deals with confirmation and disconfirmation.

Nonetheless, there are general guidelines about what constitutes good scientific reasoning, and scientists are trained to be critical of their inferences and those of others in the scientific community. In this unit, you will investigate some standard methods of scientific reasoning, some principles of confirmation and disconfirmation, and some techniques for identifying and reasoning about causation.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.

Unit 7: Strategic Reasoning and Creativity

While most of this course has focused on the types of reasoning necessary to critique and evaluate existing knowledge or to extend our knowledge following correct procedures and rules, an enormous branch of our reasoning practice runs in the opposite direction. Strategic reasoning, problem-solving, and creative thinking all rely on an ineffable component of novelty supplied by the thinker.

Despite their seemingly mystical nature, problem-solving and creative thinking are best approached by following tried and tested procedures that prompt our cognitive faculties to produce new ideas and solutions by extending our existing knowledge. In this unit, you will investigate problem-solving techniques, representing complex problems visually, making decisions in risky and uncertain scenarios, and creative thinking in general.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours.

Study Guide

This study guide will help you get ready for the final exam. It discusses the key topics in each unit, walks through the learning outcomes, and lists important vocabulary terms. It is not meant to replace the course materials!

Course Feedback Survey

Please take a few minutes to give us feedback about this course. We appreciate your feedback, whether you completed the whole course or even just a few resources. Your feedback will help us make our courses better, and we use your feedback each time we make updates to our courses.

If you come across any urgent problems, email [email protected].

Certificate Final Exam

Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate.

To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on this final exam. Your grade for the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt.

Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate .

Saylor Direct Credit

Take this exam if you want to earn college credit for this course . This course is eligible for college credit through Saylor Academy's Saylor Direct Credit Program .

The Saylor Direct Credit Final Exam requires a proctoring fee of $5 . To pass this course and earn a Credly Badge and official transcript , you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on the Saylor Direct Credit Final Exam. Your grade for this exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again a maximum of 3 times , with a 14-day waiting period between each attempt.

We are partnering with SmarterProctoring to help make the proctoring fee more affordable. We will be recording you, your screen, and the audio in your room during the exam. This is an automated proctoring service, but no decisions are automated; recordings are only viewed by our staff with the purpose of making sure it is you taking the exam and verifying any questions about exam integrity. We understand that there are challenges with learning at home - we won't invalidate your exam just because your child ran into the room!

Requirements:

• Desktop Computer
• Chrome (v74+)
• Webcam + Microphone
• 1mbps+ Internet Connection

Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a Credly Badge  and can request an official transcript .

Saylor Direct Credit Exam

This exam is part of the Saylor Direct College Credit program. Before attempting this exam, review the Saylor Direct Credit page for complete requirements.

Essential exam information:

• You must take this exam with our automated proctor. If you cannot, please contact us to request an override.
• The automated proctoring session will cost $5 .
• This is a closed-book, closed-notes exam (see allowed resources below).
• You will have two (2) hours to complete this exam.
• You have up to 3 attempts, but you must wait 14 days between consecutive attempts of this exam.
• The passing grade is 70% or higher.
• This exam consists of 50 multiple-choice questions.

Some details about taking your exam:

• Exam questions are distributed across multiple pages.
• Exam questions will have several plausible options; be sure to pick the answer that best satisfies each part of the question.
• Your answers are saved each time you move to another page within the exam.
• You can answer the questions in any order.
• You can go directly to any question by clicking its number in the navigation panel.
• You can flag a question to remind yourself to return to it later.
• You will receive your grade as soon as you submit your answers.

Allowed resources:

Gather these resources before you start your exam.

• Blank paper

What should I do before my exam?

• Gather these before you start your exam:
•   A photo I.D. to show before your exam.
•   A credit card to pay the automated proctoring fee.
•   (optional) Blank paper and pencil.
•   (optional) A glass of water.
• Make sure your work area is well-lit and your face is visible.
• We will be recording your screen, so close any extra tabs!
• Disconnect any extra monitors attached to your computer.
• You will have up to two (2) hours to complete your exam. Try to make sure you won't be interrupted during that time!
• You will require at least 1mbps of internet bandwidth. Ask others sharing your connection not to stream during your exam.
• Take a deep breath; you got this!

How To Think Clearly With The Top 11 Best Online Critical Thinking Courses & Classes [Free Guide]

Looking for a game-changer in the way you think about the world around you? Well, you’re exactly where you need to be to get started!

In this guide, I cover some of the best online critical thinking courses for developing your skills. With courses ranging from under an hour in length to 16-week programs, there’s something for everyone.  

Also, all of these online courses will equip you with the tools and techniques you need to become a great critical thinker, so let’s get into them!

Table of Contents

Top 11 Best Online Critical Thinking Courses & Classes 2024

1.  how to think differently & critically (skillshare).

In 7 easy steps, this online critical thinking course, for beginners and advanced thinkers alike, will help you see the world differently by examining different perspectives and using logic and critical reasoning to expand your mind. 

Troye Bates is your instructor for this course online class, who writes a popular online blog on brain-training, and began teaching several years ago, sparked by his passion for enhancing our mental capabilities.

Through the 7-step process, students learn how to become a mental master of critical thinking, logic, and reasoning, strategy, abundance, big-picture thinking, reflecting before they act, and tons more!

Global online learning platform Skillshare is where you will find this online course.   There are over 29,000 other courses available on the platform and you even get a 1-month free trial!   Overall, this is one of the best critical thinking classes you can find online!

• 10 video lessons
• 1 hour and 26 minutes of content
• 271 students have taken the course
• Suited to all levels

Activate FREE Skillshare Trial

2.  Critical Thinking: How to Find Out What Really Works (Skillshare)

Keen to level-up your critical thinking skills at work, school, or in day-to-day life? Critical thinking is an essential life skill, and this online course teaches you key strategies to make better life decisions.  

Andre Klapper , Ph.D., is your teacher, who is a researcher, psychologist, and neuroscientist with decades of experience in working with the mind and understanding cognitive processes. This is also 1 of 9 courses Andre currently has on Skillshare.

Spread across 14 lessons over 1-hour, students will learn the reasoning fallacy, everyday examples, how to eliminate alternative explanations, how to rule out coincidences, how to draw conclusions efficiently, the scientific thinking blueprint, and tons more!

Currently, you can find this online course hosted on the global online learning platform, Skillshare. There are over 29,000 other courses available on the platform, plus you get a 1-month free trial as a new user! Overall, this is a great introductory class to enroll in.

• 14 video lessons
• 1 hour and 11 minutes
• 211 students have taken the course
• Suited to beginners

3.  Welcome to critical thinking (LinkedIn Learning)

Learn how to make more thoughtful and effective decisions in every area of your life with this online critical-thinking course designed to challenge and expand your current level of thinking.   Clocking in at an hour, this introductory critical thinking course is just the right length to get some learning in on your commute or while out for a run!

Leading this online course is   Mike Figliuolo , the Managing Director of Thought LEADERS LLC, and an author at LinkedIn Learning. Mike is also a nationally renowned speaker, blogger, author, and teacher.

Throughout the course’s one-hour running time, students explore a series of techniques to assist with developing critical thinking skills by sharing how to redefine problems and use specific strategies such as the ‘5 Whys’, the ‘7 So Whats’, and the 80/20 rule.

You can find this online critical thinking course hosted on LinkedIn Learning, offering over 150,000 courses on a range of topics, all available to students worldwide! The expert teaching and quality content make this a not-to-miss online course!

• Approx. 1 hour of content
• Downloadable on Apple and GooglePlay for offline learning
• 312,745 people have viewed the course

Visit LinkedIn.con

4.  Critical Thinking In The Workplace (Skillshare)

Next up on my list is a critical-thinking course designed specifically for the workplace. Whether you’re looking to enhance your own skills, or you’re a manager or CEO aiming to increase staff productivity,   this short 50-minute course is highly recommended.

Katie Hall is your instructor, a representative of Talent Zoom, which is a company that helps businesses identify their unique workplace talents. Katie also has 3 courses on Skillshare and is dedicated to helping people succeed in their professional lives.

Some of the many topics covered in this online critical thinking course include the foundations of critical thinking, as well as understanding left, right, whole-brain thinking, consistency of ideas, building an explanation, active listening, and tons more!

For those interested, this online course is hosted on the global online learning platform, Skillshare. There are over 29,000 other courses available on the platform, plus a 1-month free trial! Overall, this is one of the best online critical thinking classes out there!

• 50 minutes of content
• 429 students have taken the course
• 2 downloadable resources

5.  Critical Thinking for Better Judgment and Decision-Making (Skillshare)

Did you know that having solid critical-thinking skills leads to better decision-making and a higher quality of life as a result? This online course empowers you to make the right decisions for your life by teaching you objective and rational analysis techniques to apply to any situation you might find yourself in.  

Taught by Becki Saltzman , this class is expertly led in short-format video lectures. Becki is an author, speaker, and founder of the Applied Curiosity Lab. She is focused on teaching skills to companies to improve their operations, and how their teams innovate, tackle challenges, and respond to change.

Each module of this critical thinking course covers topics such as the foundational aspect of critical thinking, how to minimize bad judgment, improving vision quality, and creating a culture of curiosity.  

Hosted on LinkedIn Learning, you can access this course and then choose from more than 150,000 others taught by industry experts once you’ve completed it! Definitely a recommended short class that you can access from anywhere.

• Approx. 55 minutes of content
• 78,641 people have viewed the course
• Suited to advanced level

6.  Master Cognitive Biases and Improve Your Critical Thinking (Udemy)

My next standout pick is an online critical-thinking course to fast-track your mental upgrade. Master your understanding of cognitive biases and learn the most effective strategies to improve the quality of your thinking in just under 2.5 hours!

Kevin DeLaplante Ph.D. is your course instructor, who is a philosopher and the founder of the Critical Thinker Academy. Kevin has taught more than 62,000 students in his 4 online courses on Udemy and works with groups, universities, and in 1-1 coaching for improving critical thinking.

In over 50 von-demand video lectures, students are guided through an explanation of cognitive bias is and how it relates to critical thinking. Lessons include confirmation bias, pattern-seeking, hindsight bias, and the anchoring effect, ending with some helpful strategies for debasing ideas.

Udemy is where you can access this critical thinking course, a great online course platform that offers its students over 150,000 on-demand online courses from beginner to advanced level!

• 50 video lectures
• 2 hours and 26 minutes of content
• Lifetime access
• Certificate of Completion
• 4.4/5 from 4,812 ratings
• 13,803 students have taken the course

Visit Udemy.com

7.  Teaching Critical Thinking through Art with the National Gallery of Art (edX)

Are you an artist or an art enthusiast? Next up is a specialist online course examining critical thinking through an artistic lens.   You’ll learn how to strengthen your thinking and facilitate meaningful conversations by applying artistic critical-thinking techniques.

As for your instructor, this online critical thinking course is offered by The Smithsonian Institute with Julie Carmean , the Museum Educator and Coordinator of Professional Development at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, United States, as your leading you.

Through 4 content units, which will take up to 20 hours to complete via self-paced learning, students investigate thinking routines, observing and describing tactics, reasoning with evidence, and questioning and investigating, receiving downloadable artful thinking lesson plans as a bonus!

You can find this online critical thinking course can be found on the nonprofit education platform edX, founded by Harvard and MIT, and offering courses form the leading worldwide universities to more than 20 million students! This particular course is one of the best online critical thinking classes I’ve found.

• 18,073 students have enrolled
• Takes 16 weeks to complete
• 3-4 hours a week of work
• Great for all levels

Visit edX.org

8.  Master your Decision-Making, and Critical Thinking Skills (Udemy)

Are you looking for a comprehensive online course to improve your decision-making? You can work towards mastering good decision-making in this 4-hour online critical-thinking course that comes highly recommended with a 4.4/5 rating!  

Your course instructor is Sivakami S , an experienced business leader and research/doctoral scholar who has taught over 20,000 students in his 12 online courses on Udemy. With nearly 2 decades of experience, she has led many initiatives in large corporations such as Verizon and Microsoft.

Spanning 45 video lectures presented in just over 4 hours, students learn how humans think, judge, and decide key cognitive biases, irrationality versus rationality, de-biasing techniques, logical fallacies, and so much more.  

Head to Udemy to check this course out, a global online learning platform that offers more than 150,000 on-demand courses on a whole range of topics no matter your level! Overall, this online course is a great deep-dive into critical-thinking!.

• 45 video lectures
• 4 hours and 3 minutes of content
• 4.4/5 from 1,183 ratings
• 5,129 students have taken the course
• 15 downloadable resources

9. Philosophy and Critical Thinking (edX)

Another online critical thinking course that I’m excited to show you is a totally free, university-led offering for anyone who wants to improve their critical thinking skills. Over a period of 6 weeks, students learn how to use philosophical inquiry to improve your personal and professional decision-making.  

Two instructors share the teaching of this online course, Professor Deborah Brown and Dr. Peter Ellerton , both lecturers and Directors of the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project who  

Students are led through critical thinking content that teaches them how to identify, analyze, and construct cogent arguments, and how to think of solutions to the central philosophical problems. There is also an option to add a verified certificate for an extra fee, for students looking for this proof of completion of the course.

edX hosts this online critical thinking course,   offering more than 20 million students incredible access to online courses at leading universities across the globe. Plus, as a nonprofit, it’s totally free! Overall, a high-quality course for anyone wanting to develop critical thinking.  

• 95,967 students have enrolled
• 6 weeks long
• 1-4 hours of work per week

10.  Critical Thinking (Udemy)

If you’re keen to study an online critical thinking course that’s both broad and detailed, this could be the one for you! In just 3 hours, you’ll have a greater grasp of logic and reasoning to apply to every area of your life.

Presented by Joss Colchester of Systems Innovation , an eLearning platform that is focused on complex systems and system change, this course is an entry into this subject. This course is led in an accessible way, making complex ideas feel easy to understand.

Joss takes students through course content covering cognition, including evolutionary psychology, as well as informal and formal logic examples and explanations, the different types of reasoning, the elements of reasoning, and argumentation rules and strategies.

One of the best online critical thinking courses around, you can find it on Udemy, which offers its students over 150,000 on-demand online courses on critical thinking and more, from beginner to advanced level!

• 21 video lectures
• 3 hours and 5 minutes of content
• 4.3/5 from 118 ratings
• 427 students have taken the course

11. Introduction to Critical Thinking (Udemy)

If you’re a critical-thinking newbie looking to get your decision-making off to a good start, this is a brilliant beginner’s course to help you process information and make thoughtful decisions.  

Teaching duo Gorden Bonne t and Carol Bloomgarden are your instructors. Golden is the author of the blog Skeptophilio, which looks at science and media through a skeptical lens. He is also a novelist and teacher of critical thinking, and various other science topics. Carol is Gorden’s wife, and she is responsible for the video production and graphic design at Skeptophilia. They both lead this course with patience and passion.

Throughout 39 on-demand video lectures, students will explore the fundamentals of critical thinking, skepticism, learn how to recognize fallacies in the media, identify questionable statistics, construct arguments, and know when scientific terms are not being used correctly.

Udemy is where you will find this critical thinking hosted, a great online course platform which offers its students over 150,000 on-demand online courses from beginner to advanced level!

Udemy was founded in 2010 and has risen to the forefront of online learning in just a decade, to become the leader in skill-based and professional online education. To learn more, also check out my other posts on NLP and CBT !

• 39 video lectures
• 1 hour and 19 minutes of content
• Course: Introduction to Critical Thinking
• 4.5/5 from 34 ratings
• 46 students have taken the course

My name is Lewis Keegan and I am the writer and editor of SkillScouter.com. I'm extremely passionate about online education and what it can do for those to better their lives. I spend most of my time blogging, hiking, and drinking coffee. I also have a Bachelor's Degree in Education and Teaching.

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Critical Thinking (Short Course)

Business management (short course).

• Course Overview
• Learning Outcomes
• Certification

Why Study Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking means adopting an objective approach to the decisions you make, wherein logic, reason and rationale take the place of bias, manipulation and emotion.  Effectively, critical thinking is a mindset that enables you to reach opinions and make informed decisions through balanced and objective analysis of the available facts.  To become a critical thinker is to benefit from the ability to better express your thoughts, your beliefs and your ideas.  It can also help you become a better communicator, making it easier for others to understand you and for you to understand them.  In a nutshell, critical thinking could be described as the classic ‘out-of-the-box’ approach to thinking - closely connected with creative thinking.  Critical thinking skills come naturally to some, but for others must be studied and practiced to perfect.

By the end of this course the learner will be able to:

• Define critical and non-critical thinking
• Identify your critical thinking style(s), including areas of strength and improvement  

All free online certificate courses at Oxford Home Study Centre are 100% free of charge from start to finish.  There is no enrolment fee, all study aids are provided via our online learning platform and all of our courses are self-paced for total flexibility.

Our exclusive free courses provide the perfect opportunity to expand your knowledge, develop new skills and explore new professions.  Upon completion of your free online certificate course, you will have the option of claiming one of three different types of certificates for a small fee:

• An official Course Completion Certificate from Oxford Home Study Centre
• A CPD Accredited Certificate to boost your CPD profile
• An Endorsed Certificate issued by the Quality Licence Scheme

Each of these certificates could prove helpful in supporting future job applications, or helping you climb the career ladder with your current employer. All certificates are 100% optional upon successful completion of your course - available to purchase with your preferred postage option.

For more information on certificate costs, head over to our pricing page or contact a member of the team at Oxford Home Study Centre anytime.

COURSE CONTENT

Topics covered in the course.

Critical Thinking short course covers the following key topics:

• Defining Critical Thinking
• Characteristics of a Critical Thinker
• Common Critical Thinking Styles
• Left- and Right-Brain Thinking
• Whole-Brain Thinking

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Easy to understand and achieve general concept in a short period of time. Worth to learn.

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i learned more than alot on Business Management...

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A Beginner’s Guide to Critical and Creative Thinking

New Scientist via FutureLearn Help

This course may be unavailable.

Develop your creative and critical thinking skills with New Scientist

Critical thinking and creativity are key skills needed to improve decision-making, whether in a personal context or in the workplace.

This three-week course will help sharpen your ability to analyse information and increase your capacity to problem solve creatively.

Learn from experts in cognitive science and creative problem solving

Guided by Dr Denise Cummins, Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and Professor Gerard Puccio from Buffalo State, you’ll explore various models of thinking in different contexts.

With this knowledge, you’ll be able to approach problems more logically, rationally, scientifically, and creatively.

Refine your decision-making process using logical and rational thinking

There are a variety of cognitive biases that can hinder decision-making.

On this course, you’ll examine them in detail, as well as learning to recognise red herrings, false dichotomies, ad hominem attacks, and motivated reasoning.

With this knowledge, you’ll be able to spot flaws and fallacies in others’ arguments and avoid biases in your own thinking. This will strengthen your own arguments and help justify your decisions.

Explore critical and creative problem solving techniques

By strengthening both your analytical reasoning and your creative thinking, you’ll have the tools necessary to solve problems in any situation.

You’ll bring together your critical and creative thinking skills to analyse the differences between convergent and divergent thinking and apply them appropriately.

By the end of this course, you’ll have learned key models of creative and critical thinking, as well as the factors that can impact decisions. Having learned how to combine creative and critical thinking, you’ll be able to supercharge brainstorming sessions and problem solving tasks.

This course is designed for learners at all levels with an interest in evaluating information and increasing their capacity for creative thinking.

It is particularly useful for professionals who want to improve their problem solving and decision-making in the workplace.

• Introducing critical and creative thinking
• Welcome to the course
• Why critical and creative thinking matters
• Three pillars of critical thinking
• Critical thinking: How to think logically
• Bringing it all together
• Critical thinking: How to think rationally and scientifically
• Critical thinking: How to think rationally
• Critical Thinking: How to think scientifically
• How to think creatively
• Developing our innate creativity
• Cognitive rigidity and the creative cliff illusion
• Strategies for creative thinking
• Creative Problem Solving: The Thinking Skills Model

Finola Lang

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How to think critically and creatively

This course will teach you to refine your critical thinking skills so that you are in a better position to evaluate information. You will learn how to think more logically, more rationally, more scientifically – and more creatively.

Supercharge your thinking

Many of us may assume that good thinking is simply a matter of education. The greater your knowledge, the more astute you will be. In reality, even the “smartest” people with advanced qualifications are prone to reasoning errors. And on the flip side, even the least “gifted” of us are capable of creative solutions that can improve our lives and work prospects.

Along the way you will pick up skills to help you analyse an argument. You will learn how to spot flaws and fallacies in someone else’s thinking - and how to avoid biases that can muddle your own. You will feel more confident in your ability to recognise red herrings, false dichotomies and ad hominem attacks, putting you in a position to make better decisions.

And by learning how to think in analogies, to use divergent and convergent thinking, and to avoid what is known as the creative cliff illusion, the better decisions you make should be more creative too.

Watch this video to find out more about this course from our expert speakers

What will you learn.

The importance of being thoughtful

• How to unlock your hidden potential

How to think logically

How to think rationally

How to make better decisions

How to think scientifically

How to think creatively

• The art of creativity

Who is this course suitable for?

This beginner's course is for anyone who is eager to learn how to think critically and creatively and is suitable for learners at all levels.

You may be studying at university and want the skills to improve your critical thinking skills to get the most out of the information presented in your course syllabus. Perhaps you’re a business leader or manager looking for tools to help you sharpen your decision-making. Or maybe you’re looking to improve your creative thinking skills to boost your career prospects.

After completing the course, you will be issued with a digital certificate. This can be used as evidence to show during job and university applications, or appraisals.

Who will you learn with?

Denise D. Cummins

Cognitive scientist

Dr. Denise D. Cummins is cognitive scientist, author, and elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. She has held faculty and research positions at Yale University, the University of California, the University of Illinois, and the Center for Adaptive Behavior at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin.

In her Psychology Today blog, Scientific American, NPR, and PBS NewHour articles, she writes about what she and other cognitive scientists are discovering about the way people think, solve problems, and make decisions. Dr. Cummins also blogs about equestrian sports as The Thinking Equestrian.

Gerard J. Puccio

Organizational psychologist

Gerard J. Puccio is Department Chair and Professor at the International Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo State; a unique academic department that offers the world's only Master of Science degree in creativity. Gerard has written more than 50 articles, chapters and books.

His most recent book titled The Innovative Team, co-authored with Chris Grivas, is a fable about a team that was able to apply proven creative-thinking tools to turn around a dysfunctional and unproductive situation. In 2011 he and his colleagues published the second edition of their book Creative Leadership: Skills that Drive Change.

In recognition of his outstanding work as a scholar, Dr. Puccio received the State University of New York Chancellor's Recognition Award for Research Excellence, as well as the President's Medal for Scholarship and Creativity.

David Robson

Science writer and course host

David Robson is a science writer and author specialising in neuroscience and psychology. A graduate of Cambridge University, he has worked as an editor at New Scientist and a senior journalist at the BBC. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Psychologist, and many other publications.

His first book, The Intelligence Trap: Revolutionise Your Thinking and Make Wiser Decisions was published in 2019. His second book, The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life, will be published in Jan 2022.

Thinking more creatively and more critically can get you further in all walks of life ...

Course curriculum, free preview, introduction.

Welcome and course objectives

How to navigate this course

Test your critical thinking skills

Your hidden potential

Objective and agenda

What school didn’t teach you

The dual process theory

Why creativity can be taught – and why it matters

Test your understanding

Can you analyse an argument?

The common logical fallacies

Carl Sagan’s fire-breathing dragon

Logical thinking

The art of logic

What logical traps do you fall into?

More to explore

Beware cognitive miserliness

Seven biases to avoid

The perils of motivated reasoning

The “consider the opposite” technique

Why should we think scientifically?

The illusion of explanatory depth

Correlation or causation?

How to assess risk and uncertainty

Scientific thinking

Why should we think creatively?

Thinking in analogies

Divergent and convergent thinking

The creative cliff illusion

Creative thinking

The big quiz

Speaker profiles

Retest your critical thinking skills

Course feedback

Course glossary

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Critical Thinking: Where to Begin

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If you are new to critical thinking or wish to deepen your conception of it, we recommend you review the content below and bookmark this page for future reference.

Our Conception of Critical Thinking...

"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness..."

"Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fairminded way. People who think critically attempt, with consistent and conscious effort, to live rationally, reasonably, and empathically. They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked. They strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and sociocentric tendencies. They use the intellectual tools that critical thinking offers – concepts and principles that enable them to analyze, assess, and improve thinking. They work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and confidence in reason. They realize that no matter how skilled they are as thinkers, they can always improve their reasoning abilities and they will at times fall prey to mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices, biases, distortions, uncritically accepted social rules and taboos, self-interest, and vested interest.

They strive to improve the world in whatever ways they can and contribute to a more rational, civilized society. At the same time, they recognize the complexities often inherent in doing so. They strive never to think simplistically about complicated issues and always to consider the rights and needs of relevant others. They recognize the complexities in developing as thinkers, and commit themselves to life-long practice toward self-improvement. They embody the Socratic principle: The unexamined life is not worth living , because they realize that many unexamined lives together result in an uncritical, unjust, dangerous world."

Why Critical Thinking?

The Problem:

Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed, or down-right prejudiced. Yet the quality of our lives and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated.

A Brief Definition:

Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. The Result: 

  A well-cultivated critical thinker:

• raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;
• gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively;
• comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;
• thinks openmindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and
• communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.

Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It requires rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities, and a commitment to overcoming our native egocentrism and sociocentrism. Read more about our concept of critical thinking .

The Essential Dimensions of Critical Thinking

Our conception of critical thinking is based on the substantive approach developed by Dr. Richard Paul and his colleagues at the Center and Foundation for Critical Thinking over multiple decades. It is relevant to every subject, discipline, and profession, and to reasoning through the problems of everyday life. It entails five essential dimensions of critical thinking:

At the left is an overview of the first three dimensions. In sum, the elements or structures of thought enable us to "take our thinking apart" and analyze it. The intellectual standards are used to assess and evaluate the elements. The intellectual traits are dispositions of mind embodied by the fairminded critical thinker. To cultivate the mind, we need command of these essential dimensions, and we need to consistently apply them as we think through the many problems and issues in our lives.

The Elements of Reasoning and Intellectual Standards

To learn more about the elements of thought and how to apply the intellectual standards, check out our interactive model. Simply click on the link below, scroll to the bottom of the page, and explore the model with your mouse.

Why the Analysis of Thinking Is Important If you want to think well, you must understand at least the rudiments of thought, the most basic structures out of which all thinking is made. You must learn how to take thinking apart. Analyzing the Logic of a Subject When we understand the elements of reasoning, we realize that all subjects, all disciplines, have a fundamental logic defined by the structures of thought embedded within them. Therefore, to lay bare a subject’s most fundamental logic, we should begin with these questions:

Going Deeper...

The Critical Thinking Bookstore  

Our online bookstore houses numerous books and teacher's manuals , Thinker's Guides , videos , and other educational materials .  

Learn From Our Fellows and Scholars

Watch our Event Calendar , which provides an overview of all upcoming conferences and academies hosted by the Foundation for Critical Thinking. Clicking an entry on the Event Calendar will bring up that event's details, and the option to register. For those interested in online learning, the Foundation offers accredited online courses in critical thinking for both educators and the general public, as well as an online test for evaluating basic comprehension of critical thinking concepts . We are in the process of developing more online learning tools and tests to offer the community.  

Utilizing this Website

This website contains large amounts research and an online library of articles , both of which are freely available to the public. We also invite you to become a member of the Critical Thinking Community , where you will gain access to more tools and materials.  If you cannot locate a resource on a specific topic or concept, try searching for it using our Search Tool . The Search Tool is at the upper-right of every page on the website.

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Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Skills

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This course, Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Skills, will provide you with an understanding of creative problem solving. You will learn the problem solving method. You will be able to explain information gathering and problem definition. You will also learn about preparing for brainstorming, generating solutions, analyzing solutions, and selecting a solution.

This course then explains critical thinking. You will learn about components of critical thinking, non-linear thinking, and logical thinking. You will also learn about critical thinkers. Students will learn about evaluating the information and the benefits of critical thinking. The module then talks about problem solving.

This course then wraps up with organizational skills. You will learn how to remove the clutter. Students will also learn how to prioritize their time and schedule with to do lists. Students will also learn about paper and paperless storage as well as how to organize their work area. The course concludes with tools to fight procrastination and avoiding disorganization. By taking this course you will learn problem solving. critical thinking, and organizational skills. So why wait? Start learning today.

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Free Critical Thinking Courses online

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Indigenous Canada

• Social Science
• Art History
• University of Alberta

Topics for the 12 lessons include the fur trade and other exchange relationships, land claims and environmental impacts, legal systems and rights, political conflicts and alliances, Indigenous political activism, and contemporary Indigenous life, art and its expressions.

Mindware: Critical Thinking for the Information Age

• Critical Thinking
• Michigan State University

This course introduces fundamental concepts from statistics, probability, scientific methodology, cognitive psychology, and cost-benefit theory and demonstrates how they can be applied to everything from choosing one product over another to critiquing media accounts of scientific research.

Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Skills

Develop your ability to tackle complex problems in the workplace using known analytical problem solving techniques, design thinking, and effective research.

Critical thinking: reasoned decision making

• Tecnológico de Monterrey

Learn to analyze events with intellectual rigor. Identify how reasoned decisions help cope with change.

Teaching Critical Thinking through Art with the National Gallery of Art

• SmithsonianX Institution

<p>Learn how to integrate works of art using Artful Thinking routines, effective strategies from Project Zero at Harvard University, in this interactive online course for teachers of all levels and subjects.</p>

Critical Thinking at University - Online Course

• University of Leeds
• Futurelearn

Ensure your prepared for university by improving your critical thinking skills with this online course from the University of Leeds.

Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Sk

Learn about Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Skills in this FREE online training course.

Strategies for Critical Thinking and Decision Making

This course helps you understand critical thinking for problem-solving and making logical, high-value decisions in work and personal life.

Pensamiento crítico: toma de decisiones razonadas

Aprende a analizar eventos con rigor intelectual. Identifica como las decisiones razonadas ayudan a enfrentar el cambio.

Penser critique

• Université catholique de Louvain

Sommes-nous manipulés ? Comment repérer les informations fiables ? Qu'est-ce qui fait qu'une démarche est scientifique ou non ?

Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

How to Argue and Reason Learn to identify and make well-reasoned arguments.

Overcoming Cognitive Bias Online Class

• Linkedin Learning

Learn about cognitive bias and how it hurts our ability to think rationally and make effective decisions.

Learn the basics of critical thinking, an essential skill for problem-solving and decision-making.

Productivity Toolbox: Morning Routine

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How to Get an Instant Energy Boost Everyday

Essential Critical Thinking Skills: Get Woke, Earn More Cash

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Details about free Critical Thinking classes and courses

Want to learn critical thinking ? This is the list of free critical thinking courses available online. From this list, you can take any of the critical thinking course to learn critical thinking in details and become master of critical thinking.

Learn critical thinking from the free critical thinking courses and free critical thinking classes online. Select free courses for critical thinking based on your skill level either beginner or expert. These are the free critical thinking classes and courses to learn critical thinking step by step.

Collection of free Critical Thinking Courses

These free critical thinking courses are collected from MOOCs and online education providers such as Udemy, Coursera, Edx, Skillshare, Udacity, Bitdegree, Eduonix, QuickStart, YouTube and more. Find the free critical thinking classes, courses and get free training and practical knowledge of critical thinking.

Get started with critical thinking for free and learn fast from the scratch as a beginner. Find free critical thinking classes for beginners that may include projects, practice exercises, quizzes and tests, video lectures, examples, certificate and advanced your critical thinking level. Some courses provide free certificate on course completion.

critical thinking courses are categorized in the free, discount offers, free trials based on their availability on their original platforms like Udemy, Coursera, Edx, Udacity, skillshare, Eduonix, QuickStart, YouTube and others Moocs providers. The critical thinking courses list are updated at regular interval to maintain latest status.

After collecting courses and tutorials from different Moocs and education providers, we filter them based on its pricing, subject type, certification and categorize them in the relevant subject or programming language or framework so you do not have to waste time in finding the right course and start learning instead.

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AI and Critical Thinking: a Resource for Faculty

Clues to ai use for content creation.

• Assignments that help students think critically
• Sample Lesson Ideas
• AI Focused Journals
• A conversation with Chat GPT
• A Conversation with Claude.ai
• Student and Faculty Tips on using AI ethically
• Helpful Readings recommended by other faculty
• Assign tasks that AI cannot yet do
• Emphasize the critical thinking process rather than an easy-to-create product generated by AI
• Encourage students to engage with and reflect on their use of AI tools.

Students will use AI more and more frequently.

• Addressing concerns around intellectual property, AI misinformation/disinformation, and academic integrity is key
• Over-reliance does not benefit the student or prepare them for the "real world"
• Understanding the use and potential of AI is important, as students will be expected by many employers to use it appropriately and ethically as a resource and a tool

AI tools are becoming harder and harder to detect. Plagiarism detectors are not 100% accurate; what to do?

• Emphasize course AI policies the first class meeting and in the first course module, and/or in the course announcements
• Be clear on expectations
• Create learning opportunities and discussions about AI and Academic Integrity
• When appropriate, encourage students to evaluate the use of AI as part of an assignment
• Discuss AI generated misinformation, disinformation, and the erosion of trust in web-based resources

Students may choose to use or over-use AI.

Strategies to help guide the conversation if you suspect a student is using or over-using AI.

• Schedule a Zoom or in-person session to discuss the assignment and your concerns
• Ask the student to clarify their thinking concerning specific parts of the assignment, and their understanding of using AI in the course
• Provide evidence to the student as needed and if appropriate
• Discuss with the student the University/Course AI policy, and the Honor Code
• If appropriate, direct the student to contact the library for assistance in locating (quality and/or peer reviewed) resources
• If appropriate, provide the student with an opportunity to resubmit
• If appropriate, refer to Academic Standards Committee
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• Last Updated: Aug 20, 2024 11:03 AM
• URL: https://slulibrary.saintleo.edu/libraryai

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Embracing Gen AI at Work

• H. James Wilson
• Paul R. Daugherty

The skills you need to succeed in the era of large language models

Today artificial intelligence can be harnessed by nearly anyone, using commands in everyday language instead of code. Soon it will transform more than 40% of all work activity, according to the authors’ research. In this new era of collaboration between humans and machines, the ability to leverage AI effectively will be critical to your professional success.

This article describes the three kinds of “fusion skills” you need to get the best results from gen AI. Intelligent interrogation involves instructing large language models to perform in ways that generate better outcomes—by, say, breaking processes down into steps or visualizing multiple potential paths to a solution. Judgment integration is about incorporating expert and ethical human discernment to make AI’s output more trustworthy, reliable, and accurate. It entails augmenting a model’s training sources with authoritative knowledge bases when necessary, keeping biases out of prompts, ensuring the privacy of any data used by the models, and scrutinizing suspect output. With reciprocal apprenticing, you tailor gen AI to your company’s specific business context by including rich organizational data and know-how into the commands you give it. As you become better at doing that, you yourself learn how to train the AI to tackle more-sophisticated challenges.

The AI revolution is already here. Learning these three skills will prepare you to thrive in it.

Generative artificial intelligence is expected to radically transform all kinds of jobs over the next few years. No longer the exclusive purview of technologists, AI can now be put to work by nearly anyone, using commands in everyday language instead of code. According to our research, most business functions and more than 40% of all U.S. work activity can be augmented, automated, or reinvented with gen AI. The changes are expected to have the largest impact on the legal, banking, insurance, and capital-market sectors—followed by retail, travel, health, and energy.

• H. James Wilson is the global managing director of technology research and thought leadership at Accenture Research. He is the coauthor, with Paul R. Daugherty, of Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI, New and Expanded Edition (HBR Press, 2024). hjameswilson
• Paul R. Daugherty is Accenture’s chief technology and innovation officer. He is the coauthor, with H. James Wilson, of Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI, New and Expanded Edition (HBR Press, 2024). pauldaugh

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