Consider your professional goals for a moment. Perhaps you’re preparing to take the leap into a new career path or strike out on your own as an entrepreneur. Maybe you’re ready to advance into a leadership role or help guide a growing organization into stability and success. Perhaps your focus for now is more on your community, and you’re tasked with organizing different stakeholders and volunteers around a shared vision or project. No matter where you are or what your experience is, you’ll find yourself drawing on so-called soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and cultural fluency—and you know that there’s nothing soft about these critical competencies!
Fortunately, core skills can be taught—and learned, and practiced! Whether you are a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) student selecting courses for your degree, a working adult considering a short certificate program to boost your professional credentials, or a lifelong learner curious to try one or two 8-week courses to gain fluency in a particular topic, these interactive courses offer both knowledge and experience to enhance your communication skill set.
Fall 1 courses begin on August 26. Current Penn LPS Online students can register for courses via Path@Penn. If you are new to our programs, you can join us for the fall 2 term by enrolling as a certificate or general course-taking student through October 1 or applying for the BAAS by September 1. Getting started is easy—just complete and submit the online form and nonrefundable fee through our online application system.
Here are just a few of the courses offered this fall that will help you connect, communicate, and collaborate with others.
APOP 2700: Flourishing and Well-Being in Resilient Communities
Positive psychology is about more than individual well-being. A rigorous and research-based social science, positive psychology also offers tools to measure structural and systemic barriers to flourishing in marginalized communities—and applications to help support resilience and well-being despite these challenges. In this new course, you can learn the ways resilient communities cope with hardship and identify key strengths that enable communities to survive and thrive together. There are no prerequisites for APOP 2700: Flourishing and Well-Being in Resilient Communities, although students will have a more robust experience in the course if they are already acquainted with positive psychology concepts from completing previous Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology courses.
- Instructor: Christa Mahlobo, Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Penn’s Positive Psychology Center
- 8-week course offered in fall 1 (August 26 – October 21, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology and Certificate in Dialogue, Ethics, and Social Good
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Data Analytics and Psychological Sciences, Data Analytics and Social Sciences, Individualized Studies, and Organizational Studies
ICOM 1000: Intercultural Communication
The foundation of communication is language, and understanding language—at work, abroad, or anywhere—means understanding culture. Whether you’re preparing to learn a new language, working in a multinational organization, or engaging with community members of varied backgrounds, an intercultural perspective is vital to meaningful communication. That’s why this foundational course, which fulfills the BAAS degree requirement in Cross-Cultural Interactions, can also be applied to so many certificates: developing these skills can prepare you for a global perspective in the Certificate in Global and Regional Studies, complement your dialogic practice in the Certificate in Dialogue, Ethics, and Social Good, and enhance your professional abilities along with the Upskill Certificate. In this 8-week accelerated course, you’ll learn key ideas in intercultural practices and strategies, and explore the intricate relationship between language and culture through reflective and analytical writing.
- Instructor: Christina Frei, Executive Director, Language Instruction, Penn Arts and Sciences
- 8-week course offered in fall 1 (August 26 – October 21, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Dialogue, Ethics, and Social Good, Certificate in Global and Regional Studies, and Upskill Certificate
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Individualized Studies and Literature, Culture, and Tradition
- May be applied toward the BAAS foundational requirement: Cross-Cultural Interactions
DISG 1000: Centering Dialogue as a Leadership Strategy
Dialogue is an essential tool for both strategic leadership and sustainable community dynamics. Effective dialogue can inform decision-making, improve problem-solving, and offer valuable insights; conversely, a breakdown in dialogue can erode trust and undermine leadership. And in today’s increasingly complex world, it’s easy to lose sight of what dialogue is and what makes it meaningful.
In this new course, a combination of research and practice will help you differentiate dialogue from debate and discussion, identify vital skills for initiating and maintaining effective communication, and examine how dialogue can impact real-world processes and outcomes from organizations and communities to personal relationships and family dynamics. As the introductory course in the Certificate in Dialogue, Ethics, and Social Good, DISG 1000 can set you on a path toward developing your tools for social impact and positive change, or it can complement your coursework in related subject areas such as leadership and organizational studies.
- Instructor: Brighid Dwyer, Vice Dean for Academic Excellence and Engagement, School of Arts and Sciences
- 8-week course offered in fall 1 (August 26 – October 21, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Dialogue, Ethics, and Social Good
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Data Analytics and Social Sciences, Individualized Studies, and Organizational Studies
CLCH 3100: Global Environmental Issues
Summer in the northern hemisphere tends to bring environmental emergencies to the forefront: catastrophic flooding in Texas, once-in-a-generation drought in England, deadly temperatures in urban heat islands from Arizona to Europe. Although different regions experience its impacts in different ways, the changing climate is a worldwide issue. This course tackles the complex global problem by looking at case studies drawn from around the world and examining how stakeholders in wide-ranging sectors (including science, law, and economics) partner on solutions. For the final project, you’ll work with your classmates on a group project—practicing the multidisciplinary collaboration that is so vital to environmental discourse. There are no prerequisites for CLCH 3100: Global Environmental Issues, although students are encouraged to first complete other courses in the Certificate in Climate Change for a more robust understanding of environmental science.
- Instructor: Yvette Bordeaux, PhD, Director of Graduate Programs
- 8-week course offered in fall 1 (August 26 – October 21, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied to the Certificate in Climate Change and the Certificate in Global and Regional Studies
- May be applied to BAAS concentrations in Individualized Studies and Physical and Life Sciences
PROW 3010: The Power of Storytelling
From business and science to medicine and nonprofit organizations, storytelling is increasingly recognized as one of the strongest tools of communication and persuasion. Drawing on case studies from business, biography, medicine, and more, this course explores how storytelling may be variously used for inquiry, evidence gathering, and persuasion. The art of storytelling can help you convey complex information and put rhetorical strategies to work in your current role, or develop a pitch and establish a brand identity as you prepare for a career pivot.
- Instructor: Fayyaz Vellani, Lecturer in Critical Writing, Marks Family Center for Excellence in Writing
- 8-week course offered in fall 1 (August 26 – October 21, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Professional Writing
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentration in Individualized Studies
APOP 2900: Measuring What Moves Us: The Science Behind Human Flourishing
Positive psychology is known as the science of well-being; courses in this innovative field focus as much on empirical research and measurable outcomes as on personal reflection and qualitative analysis. This new course focuses in on the connection between those approaches, using the emotion of awe as a theme and a framework. For example: How do you measure something as mysterious as awe? How can you quantify its impact on well-being and flourishing? Through readings, discussions, and real-world applications, you will learn how to thoughtfully interpret and communicate findings—becoming a savvy consumer of both academic research and pop science.
- Instructor: Katherine Cotter, Associate Director of Research in Penn’s Positive Psychology Center
- 8-week course offered in fall 2 (October 23 – December 18, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Data Analytics and Psychological Sciences, Individualized Studies, and Organizational Studies
DISG 2100: Cultural and Social Identity
We hear about identity politics all the time, but how often do we really get a chance to examine who we are in the world—where we live, who we belong to—and understand how our unique position shapes the way we see the world? In this course, you’ll get down to the roots of cultural and social identity, delving into the foundational concepts of sociology, communication, and psychology that inform this field. On an individual level, you’ll explore the power of your own identity and how it may influence the way others relate to you. Beyond that, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of systemic inequality, cultivate practical skills for communicating across differences, and tap into your potential to connect with others meaningfully.
- Instructor: Danielle N. Gadson, Lecturer
- 8-week course offered in fall 2 (October 23 – December 18, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Dialogue, Ethics, and Social Good
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Data Analytics and Social Sciences and Individualized Studies
ORGC 2010: Virtual Collaboration
In 2020, many of us suddenly found ourselves in virtual classrooms and remote workplaces—and quickly realized that our online spaces required different communication tools and technologies than we use face-to-face. At that time, Penn LPS Online was already drawing on years of online education to coordinate immersive, interactive virtual classrooms; in the five years since, we have continued to test and implement the best tools available to bring our learning community together. In this practical course, you’ll benefit from that long-standing experience. You’ll study the social science of organizations—how groups are constructed, sustained, and changed over time—to understand the root structures of leadership and team collaboration. Along with your classmates, you’ll have opportunities for hands-on practice, observation, and trying out new methods for virtual collaboration that you can put to work right away.
- Instructor: Jackie Candido, Senior Director of Program Design & Delivery, Arts and Sciences Online Learning
- 8-week course offered in fall 2 (October 23 – December 18, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Digital Strategies, Certificate in Organizational Culture and Collaboration, Upskill Certificate
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Individualized Studies and Organizational Studies
This is just a small selection of the courses available online this fall—there are many more courses to browse! View our course guide to see the full range of what’s available in the upcoming terms.
