Have you ever taken any online courses?
By 5th House
@5thHouse (1678)
Sheffield, England
September 8, 2016 1:29pm CST
At this time of year I always get the urge to study. It's not for career purposes, simply because I love learning new things.
Over the years I've found some really impressive free online courses through Coursera. The courses are offered by different universities and cover a range of topics. The courses I have taken include 'Buddhism and Modern Psychology' and 'The History of Rock 'n' Roll.' The courses are made up of video lectures with quizzes and peer-graded assignments.
I think these free courses are a good way of deciding whether you are sufficiently enthused by a subject to want to take it further.
I am currently part-way through a course in Beginners' Latin offered by The National Archives, which had to go on the back burner for a while. There's also a fascinating looking free course in forensic science and anthropology called 'Identifying the Dead' created by Dundee University and offered through Future Learn. I'm hoping to make time for that one too.
The internet has certainly changed the way we study. Have you ever taken any online courses?
6 people like this
6 responses
@louievill (28846)
• Philippines
8 Sep 16
Good you asked, well are those really free courses? I asked because some sites offer free but would charge you later if you want to print their certificate
If I have time, I saw a free course on first aide, basic and advance, although I had finished the basic red cross and was even a member Red Cross Youth in our country, I feel an urge to upgrade what I know especially now that we have a lot of Natural disater and man made threats.
1 person likes this
@5thHouse (1678)
• Sheffield, England
8 Sep 16
You do have to pay extra for the certificates but I never bothered with certificates on Coursera as I was just doing the courses for fun, not for career reasons. (I can't imagine the certificates would carry much clout anyway, but I might be wrong about that.) It sounds like a very good idea to do the first aid course.
1 person likes this
@louievill (28846)
• Philippines
8 Sep 16
@5thHouse what i felt was that some of these free courses should declare if they are really 100% free, good if it's done for fun but I really feel that you should really have some kind tangible proof of your knowledge even if its not for career
and would just be hidden in some closet and not displayed.
Proofs or certificates may come in handy even in just a casual afternoon knowledge sharing or discussion with friends and should be a hundred percent free and accessible to down load anytime just in case it's needed , anyway hope you enjoy your chosen field and update us
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382240)
• Rockingham, Australia
9 Sep 16
No, I haven't but you have me really intrigued now. I'll have to go searching. :)
@marguicha (230350)
• Chile
8 Sep 16
I haven´t, but my eldest daughter has. She told me about coursera and I have been thinking about what they can offer free.
@STOUTjodee (3670)
• United States
8 Sep 16
Some of those courses sound interesting and they're free? What a deal!! Might have to check into something like that!!
@Mike197602 (15504)
• United Kingdom
8 Sep 16
I have but not in the way you have.
I just got a job after years of no job and I had a week of online courses to pass in order to get various certificates such as health and safety, manual handling and advanced food hygiene.
Then when I passed them the company got a guy in to train me on various chemicals we use...a kitchen uses a lot of chemicals.
I found the courses ok and very relevant to the job and much better than the old style ones where you had to spend half a day on each subject as you had to go at the pace of the trainer.
The one thing I'd like to do in the future would be skype language courses...but I don't know what language to do
@everwonderwhy (7355)
•
8 Sep 16
Yes, I have on a few paid post graduate courses. I enjoyed those, too. You've quite an impressive qualifying resume there. Good job! :-)
