7 Free Online Courses in March

I find March a perfect month for online learning – long, rainy days, still cold and grey just made to stay in and study. I have a ton of books to read, but I simply cannot resist a good online course (like Language Testing During Awake Brain Surgery, awesome stuff!), so here we are with a set of seven fresh online courses:

1 An Intermediate Guide to Writing in English for University Study by the University of Reading

Start: 5th March

Duration: 5 weeks

For whom: students of EFL interested in developing their academic writing skills

Being a long-time learner of English I know that writing skills are more important than most of our students realise. Some of them believe it easy to write an opinion essay or a short business mail – well, we, the teachers, have been there, done that and know now that learning writing may be quite a challenge. This course is designed to make our lives easier, as here you’ll get an introduction to research tools, writing critically and referencing, as well as learning more about the fundamentals like essay structure, proofreading and avoiding plagiarism.

2 Sign Language Structure, Learning, and Change by Georgetown University

Start: self-paced

Duration: 4 weeks

For whom: people interested in American Sign Language

Being a teacher of a language means learning about various versions of a language one teaches. We study accents and jargons, but maybe we should spend some time on the sign version of English? This course will provide you with historical origins,  types of structural variation within ASL, role of visual analogy in learning ASL, and ways in which language specific variation and historical change for signed languages may compare and contrast to those for spoken languages.

3 Introduction to Multilingual and Multicultural Education by National Research University Higher School of Economics

Start: 5th March

Duration: 8 weeks

For whom: educators aware of school-related issues connected with multiculturalism

Offering equal educational opportunities in more and more multicultural world seems to be yet another challenge. This course will help you evaluate various teaching practices in multilingual and multicultural settings, evaluate various language policies, get insights to better understand the learning needs of students of various backgrounds and apply this knowledge in your own classroom. I believe this course may be useful for everyone, especially big city teachers.

4 Think Again I: How to Understand Arguments by  Duke University

Start: 12th March

Duration: 4 weeks

For whom: students and people who want to work on their communicative skills

What are arguments made of? What forms do they take? Well, this course will help you learn what an argument is. You will also learn how to break an argument into its essential parts, how to put them in order to reveal their connections, and how to fill in gaps in an argument. I think this course may turn out to be a perfect choice for younger people, often striving to communicate properly.

5 Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative by Vanderbilt University

Start: 12th March

Duration: 6 weeks

For whom: gamers and people interested in video games

Today learning takes place anytime, anyplace and with anyone we want – and the world of online games is one of the most common environments where non-native users of English actually communicate, practise and learn (both the good and the bad things, that’s true). As teachers, we cannot ignore this, on the contrary – we should embrace this opportunity for our students to develop and encourage them to do so. I myself have learnt English playing computer games, but if you weren’t so lucky and still need some research on gaming – that’s the course for you.

6 Designing Your Personal Weight Loss Plan by Case Western Reserve University

Start: 5th March

Duration: 5 weeks

For whom: people interested in improving their diet, teachers spending too much time sitting down and grading papers

The course will help you set a realistic goal weight with an equally specified plan, strategies for food shopping, sets of exercises, continuing evaluation of progress… Well everything we believe we already know, but have troubles with maintaining. The course, unfortunately, doesn’t guarantee weight loss, however it may prove quite useful if you’re a teacher thinking of getting a proper beach body (although I deeply believe every body you take to the beach is a beach body).

7 Irish 101: An Introduction to Irish Language and Culture by Dublin City University

Start: 26th March

Duration: 4 weeks

For whom: people interested in Irish or all those who want to celebrate St Paddy’s Day BIG STYLE

I tried to learn Irish and then I moved to Ireland only to realise Irish people in Dublin don’t really use it, which was slightly sad. However, if you feel like learning the beautiful language mostly for the sake of it, you may pick this course. Also, they course description mentions learning Irish curses and those may be something to use in the classroom…

Long March days require some support, hence a bonus course:

Wine Tasting: Sensory Techniques for Wine Analysis by University of California, Davis

Start: 5th March

Duration: 5 weeks

For whom: teachers. Honestly, am I supposed to say why we need this course? 🙂

Let me quote something from the course description: ” At the conclusion, you will write a descriptive analysis of the aroma attributes you identify in a particular wine.”

For science!!!