Now you have completed a self-assessment, you have developed short and long term goals, and you know what basic skills you need to develop. Now you are in a good position to select the online courses you want to take. Remember online course selection is only a beginning as setting up a curriculum or order of courses is important as well. Your goal with course selection is developing the universe of online subjects and courses you need to take. You should develop a list of every online program or course you need to take to meet your goals from your self-assessment. In addition, you should be developing a list of all the required skills you need to obtain to meet your objectives as well.
Required skills are those skills that are specifically apply to achieving your goals. For example, to start your own business you may need accounting skills, web development skills, marketing and so on. Required skills are the skills that give you the knowledge required to start attacking your long term goals. Basic and intermediate courses in marketing do not give you the expert knowledge in an advertising or marketing business. For example, an art business may also require specific skills in Art History, Evaluating Art, and / or Art Valuation. A Consulting business requires expertise in the area you are going to consult in. For example, a web design consultant needs skills in HTML, PHP, Graphic Design, Database Management etc. Be sure to be as thorough as possible in your course selection as it will better help you in the long run.
Your course listing must include all the basic skills you need to develop as identified in your self-assessment and all required skills needed to achieve your ultimate goal. With your course selection list, you now need to organize your selections in a logical progression or a curriculum which I will discuss in my next series of articles generically and specifically by subject.