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Shane Dresser

One of my favorite courses ever turned out to be from FEMA, and it was when they visited my middle school. The course was a disaster response exercise designed to throw us kids into the roles of FEMA operators, and have us save an island from an impending hurricane. During this visit from FEMA, I was thrown into the role of Incident Commander and tasked with helping make decisions that would ultimately affect the simulated lives of the inhabitants of the island we were in charge of.

I didn't know it back then, but I think that may have been a catalyst for getting me into my current field of work. I am currently an Emergency Medical Dispatch Supervisor with mutliple FEMA disaster response certifications.

Megan Hart

My favorite course has to be the virtual Lean Six Sigma (yellow belt) course. It really gave me the tools to seek the promotion of Project Manager. I was able to do the course at my own pace and my mentor would double check my tasks or "homework". Great experience and molded me into the PM I am today!

lgabel

My most memorable class was Music Theory when I studied as a classical guitarist (before my years of teaching and instructional design). The professor was absolutely terrifying, demanded our very best, and inspired me to reach new levels of skills and push past my own limitations. I took a lot of his lessons (minus the terrifying part lol) into my own career in education.

Trista

One of my favorite courses was a training I took to become certified in Life Space Crisis Intervention during a former career I had working in group care. It's basically therapeutic strategies that can be used during a crisis situation to help turn them into opportunities for learning and growth and overcome challenging patterns. What made it great was it empowered me to feel better equipped to navigate really tough situations and be effective at my job. Even though I no longer work in that field, there were practical strategies and advice that I still utilize today.

BethWork

I have enjoyed taking project management courses in Coursera. They are interactive, well though out, and informative. I am learning a lot and there are courses on almost every subject. I feel like I can actually apply the lessons from the courses to my professional life.

Gloydius

My favourite course was the Prosci Change Management Course. Over a short space of time, supported by great reference materials that they provided, you get both the information you need AND the understanding of where to find the information that you might want later. Plus, you get online access to the support tools for a year after joining.

Kashif Ahmed

Intro to Neuroscience from university. I did not do particularly well in the course, but the knowledge I learned for how to problem solve via a "Rube Goldberg" mindset and how many interdependencies there are to have a cognitive output to a stimulus really fueled my thirst for seeking out knowledge and want to go into teaching.

Kelly Goddard

I had two courses I enjoyed when completing my BSN degree. They were my core graduate project course and system quality improvement. Both of these courses help me see the need to improve processes in healthcare and through my current position. I gain confidence in describing the utilization of Smartsheet in our processes. I was able to show how incorporating Smartsheet into our processes would reduce labor cost and efficiency, improve customer service, make live KPI generation available to key stakeholders, and reduce process turnaround time. I had to do a preparation for my leadership from my graduate project and show the outcomes of the Smartsheet. Introducing Smartsheet into my system quality improvement was interesting and intrigued many others in the course. Today, using Smartsheet has shed some light on the importance of the platform and the performance it gives our leadership in the moment data.

Silvur

For me, the best courses have always existed at the intersection of challenging material and an instructor who is sincerely passionate about their subject matter. Any of the courses that have been among my favorites -- AP Bio in high school, Macroecon in biz school, and a boating workshop are personal examples -- have all had instructors who were in love with the material.

Kendra Queen

One of my favorite trainings was a project management class in grad school. I learned so much about managing expectations, working more effectively with project teams, and the importance of proactive decision-making instead of reactive problem-solving. What made this course so great was our professor, a city manager, used real life examples, data to back up his lessons, and outcomes for each project plan. He demonstrated all his lessons and examples in Smartsheet and it really helped me understand the big picture of project management.

jwilburn

I am a huge fan of all courses in SmartsheetU. Making the transition to Smartsheet has been a game changer for our company and management efficiency. I hope to continue my training and expanding my knowledge of everything Smartsheet can do for the company! The automation courses have helped me become a Smartsheet automagician.

Christopher Burrell

My favorite course was C++ Programming in College. It was an online course, and very fast paced, but it was amazing to be able to control a computer using code I had written! It was an awesome experience and set me up to finish my degree!

Gary S

Colloids and interfaces class in graduate school - the professor had us plot the relationships between different parameters which was super helpful to understand effects visually.

Alackey

My favorite course was an in-person CPA Becker course. The instructor LHR, was exceptional, striking a balance between being tough and supportive. Her focus extended beyond just the subject matter; she emphasized self-belief. Through her guidance, I successfully passed three out of the four CPA exams. She achieved this by streamlining the material, prioritizing the most frequently tested topics, and promoting comprehension over memorization.

Rhonda M

One of the best courses I've attended over my career, was "From Horse Sense to People Smarts." I had just accepted a supervisor role with a Utilities company, and it was my first time managing a team in a full time capacity. Coming from a Business Analyst role to a people manager was a big learning curve. I'd always considered myself a "people person," but quickly discovered that I was more analytical than people, and the skills that got me to the Supervisor role were not the skills that would make me a great supervisor. That's when I found this course - which I enrolled in as soon as I saw the word horse (yes, love horses). I expected the course to be about riding and how to safely ride and groom the horses etc. I was very wrong. We didn't harness or ride our assigned horse. Rather we were shown how to lead the horse simply by being aware of the energy we radiated.

The instructor first demonstrated entering the area, with a laid back energy setting the herd at ease, allowing them to lounge about. She then shifted her energy to anger and frustration. She stomped around the arena, angrily muttering to herself. The herd ran as far from her as possible and warily watched her from the outer corners of the arena. It was an effective demonstration. The visual representation of how negative energy, like positive, has a ripple effect. Like horses, people will quickly run as quickly as possible run if we are in a negative headspace and impacted my psyche. It still comes to mind as I deal with different teams.

That was almost 20 yrs ago and the scene or the instructor angrily muttering while entering the arena, and the entire herd scattering, is still comes to mind when I am having an "off' day.