7 Free Online Courses in March

March is one of the most tiring months – it’s long, doesn’t have a proper break, it’s also bleak and honestly, somewhat annoying. I used to take a short break in March, but well – we’re still in the lockdown, so there’s no point in taking a break and staying in, is there? Luckily, there are some new free online courses you may try and brighten this boring month a little bit!

I found some courses that you can use not only for your own professional development, but also with your students – as part of your classes:

Essential Skills for Your Career Development by the University of Leeds

Start: 1/03/2021
Duration: 2 weeks
Recommended for:  people who want to improve their career prospects – it may be a good course to take as part of your classes!
You will learn:

• how to identify different approaches to growing your career
• how to develop communications to engage key leads
• how to identify key individuals, organisations and platforms for your network

Bullying in Schools: How Should Teachers Respond? by Queensland University of Technology

Start: 8/03/2021
Duration: 2 weeks
Recommended for:  teachers, leaders, support staff, and volunteers working schools who have a duty of care for children
You will learn:

• how to identify bullying
• how to interpret people’s different attitudes towards bullying
• how to engage helpfully when a child reports bullying

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education for Teachers by Macquarie University

Start: 15/03/2021
Duration: 6 weeks
Recommended for:  teachers who want to increase their general understanding of AI
You will learn:

• how to compare AI with human intelligence
• how it has evolved since the 1950s
• how to use creative and critical thinking, design thinking, data fluency, and computational thinking as they relate to AI applications

Learn Moodle Basics by Moodle

Start: self-paced
Duration: 4 weeks
Recommended for:  anybody who wants to use the Moodle learning platform for teaching
You will learn:

• the basics of the open source (and free!) learning platform
• how to  set up and effectively use Moodle in teaching
• how to understand the basics of teaching with Moodle

Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Web 2.0 Tools by University of Houston System

Start: 29/03/2021
Duration: 5 weeks
Recommended for:  teachers who want to learn how to effectively integrate technologies into classroom practices and create engaging student activities
You will learn:

• about popular Web 2.0 tools like Edmodo, Twitter, Voicethread, and Skype
• how to use wide variety of Web 2.0 tools to use in your teaching and learning
• how to create engaging student activities

Propaganda and Ideology in Everyday Life by the University of Nottingham

Start: now
Duration: 5 weeks
Recommended for:  anyone with an interest in politics, history and propaganda – this may be a great course to use in your classes with teenagers!
You will learn:

• how to assess the usefulness of different academic methodologies for understanding ideologies
• how political ideals and values travel between different historical periods and cultural contexts
• how images and spaces reflect and shape ideological assumptions

An Introduction to Recreational Math: Fun, Games, and Puzzles by the Weizmann Institute of Science

Start: now
Duration: 5 weeks
Recommended for:  anyone who enjoys popular science, recreational maths and solving maths puzzles and crosswords
You will learn:

• how to improve your problem solving and out-of-the-box thinking skills
• how to collect tools, materials and ideas for fun recreational math activities
• how to collaborate with other learners, puzzlists and math enthusiasts on fun math activities

I hope you’ll like the courses you pick!

Enjoy and stay safe!