7 Free Online Courses in January

How are you in 2018? After my winter break I’m ready to rock! To my organised self it’s a double charm when the beginning of the year matches the beginning of the week (which in my case is on Monday). The New Year, as always, brings new challenges, new opportunities and new things we can learn – and I’m quite excited about all this!

Here’s my monthly bulletin on seven courses I could recommend for teachers, DoSes and educators in general. We’re taking January resolutions seriously, so most of the courses have their starting dates, no lazy self-pacement this month!

1 How to Succeed at: Writing Applications by the University of Sheffield

Start: 8th January

Duration: 3 weeks

For whom: people who are ready for a big change in their lives – both teachers and students

This course has been designed and developed by experts from The Careers Service at the University of Sheffield to help people write successful applications, whether they are applying for jobs or planning to study at university or college. When you complete this course you may go straight to How to Succeed at: Interviews (starting on the 29th of January) and then follow with How to Succeed in the Global Workplace which was produced in collaboration with The British Council.

2 Academic Discussions in English by University of California, Irvine

Start: 1st January

Duration: 4 weeks

For whom: students preparing to start university education, people who want to practice and improve discussion skills

In this class you will learn not only about different types of conversations you will encounter in academic settings, but you will also discover some strategies helping you understand other people’s meaning and helping you express yourself effectively. In the paid version, the curriculum includes recording several videos of oneself for peer feedback, however free users have access to all instructional videos and handouts.

3 Supporting English Learners: Resources for Leaders by Stanford University

Start: self-paced

Duration: self-paced

For whom: teachers, educators, DoSes

This course provides a set of resources designed to support educational leaders in driving educational change for English learners and guide you through a process of examining existing system around TEFL as well as help developing a plan to encourage shift practices. The overall goal is for participating educators to better understand students of ESL in their context and use what they learn to design a better system where students may achieve more.

4 Becoming a Confident Trainer by TAFE SA

Start: 8th January

Duration: 4 weeks

For whom:  educators, trainers

The course focuses on more practical aspects of training and facilitation like: practical techniques, approaches, hints and suggestions that you may apply to your own training environment. Confidence as a trainer comes from the awareness that you are well prepared in your topic, but it is also understanding that an effective trainer is someone who presents in a professional manner, is an effective communicator and has developed the awareness of the learning needs of their learner group.

5 Young People and Their Mental Health by University of Groningen and University of Cambridge

Start: 15th January

Duration: 5 weeks

For whom:  parents, caregivers, teachers and medical professionals but mainly young people aged over 14 wanting to know more about mental health

The course is designed primarily for young people as mental health problems often develop during the teenage period. It may be really useful for teenagers to know how to recognise common mental health problems, know how they arise, what can be done to prevent them and what should be done when one actually suffers from them. Naturally, it may be only useful for adults to take this course as well, as it may help us develop not only the knowledge, but also ways of communicating with teenagers.

6 Cybersecurity and Its Ten Domains by University System of Georgia

Start: 1st January

Duration: 6 weeks

For whom:  anyone and everyone interested in cybersecurity

This course is designed to introduce the more and more important issue of cybersecurity. You will gain access to materials that address governance and risk management, compliance, business continuity and disaster recovery, cryptography, software development security, access control, network security, security architecture, security operations, and physical and environmental security. You do not need prior experience in IT security to do well in this course. All you need is a willingness to learn.

7 Leadership Through Social Influence by Northwestern University

Start: 8th January

Duration: 4 weeks

For whom:  people interested in persuasive influence situations

Well, that’s a bit tricky course – I think there are two types of people who might find is useful – those who want to use persuasive approach… and those who want to recognise and defend against it (as it is, in its crudest meaning, manipulation). The broad goal is to provide learners with not only an extensive persuasion tool kit, but also with an understanding of how different tools are useful in different situations. For some, such knowledge may be interesting to use, for everyone – to study.

And, last but not least, a course that is not really free, but may be of use, especially for our students:

Writing Better Emails by the British Council

Start: 29th January

Duration: 3 weeks

For whom:  for all working professionals, especially young people, CEFR level B1 and above

Cost: $59

It isn’t very often that we have time to cover professional e-mail writing during our EFL courses – I know that some of my students would be more than happy to practise this skill at home, especially that they feel like practising in-class writing is a waste of time. This online course develops planning, organising, writing and editing skills, to enable students to write more effective and efficient emails and is an interesting option to recommend to your students.

I hope the courses I’ve chosen will help you pick something interesting to study this month – I’ll probably pick the one for Confident Trainers.

Enjoy and see you online!