7 Free Online Courses in February

Winter in Poland is just glorious this year – snowy and cold, love it! What’s better than waking up, having two cups of coffee, enjoying a lovely walk in a winter wonderland and then, feeling refreshed, studying a bit? Last year I started learning French, so I’m doing my best to spend at least 10 minutes every day on learning… mostly numbers, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day!

As usual, I’ve browsed the net to find some courses that would be useful, interesting, sensible and free – and I want to share with you seven courses that caught my attention. Maybe they will inspire you to learn something new?

Resilient Teaching Through Times of Crisis and Change by the University of Michigan

Start date: 07/02/2022
Duration:  4 weeks
For whom: higher education faculty, lecturers, and graduate student instructors, but may also be applicable to educators in a wide variety of instructional environments
You will learn:

• how technology and tools can be used to facilitate interactions in support of learning
• how to draw inspiration from examples that highlight resilient teaching during the emergency remote teaching phase
• how to apply guiding principles of resilient design for learning to develop a course plan

Basics of Inclusive Design for Online Education by University of Colorado Boulder

Start date:  07/02/2022
Duration:  5 weeks
For whom: people who want to develop a course that is inclusive to students with a wide range of abilities, including students with disabilities
You will learn:

• how to increase inclusion and avoid some of the common accessibility issues that can arise in an online course
• about the accessibility of Microsoft Office and PDF documents, making course instruction pages accessible, captioning of videos, making images accessible, and designing for learning differences
• how inclusive course materials can help all students, including students without disabilities

TOEFL Test-Taking Strategies by University of California, Irvine

Start date:  07/02/2022
Duration:  4 weeks
For whom: people who want to take the TOEFL iBT exam
You will learn:

• helpful tips and proven techniques for successfully completing the reading, listening, speaking, and writing sections of the iBT
• a variety of strategies such as note-taking, using templates, and analyzing speech patterns, and you will review many sample questions and responses
• how to best practice and prepare for test day as well as how to manage your time and perform optimally during the exam

Blended and Online Learning Design by University College London

Start date: 21/02/2022
Duration: 3 weeks
For whom: teachers in all sectors of formal education
You will learn:

• how to develop your teaching as active learning designs for blended and online teaching for different learning outcomes
• how to apply your learning through and about online pedagogies and digital tools
• how to collaborate with other participants in a teacher community of practice

Education Research that Matters: Applying Research to Your Teaching Practice by the University of Birmingham, the Chartered College of Teaching

Start date: available now
Duration:  4 weeks
For whom: teachers who work in early years, primary, secondary and further education settings
You will learn:

• how to use effective search techniques to locate useful research using a variety of sources
• how to recognise the influence of bias or position on engagement with research
• how to analyse research and consider possible implications of findings for your context

Good Practice in Autism Education by the University of Bath

Start date: available now
Duration:  3 weeks
For whom: people who work with autistic children in schools, such as teachers and teaching assistants
You will learn:

• how to identify the educational requirements of children on the autism spectrum with and without intellectual (learning) difficulties
• how to reflect on what constitutes good practice for autism within educational settings
• how to compare specific examples of good practice in autism education

Using Virtual Scenarios to Create Effective Learning by St George’s, University of London, WAVES

Start date: available now
Duration:  3 weeks
For whom: teachers and trainers in any discipline who wish to create their own virtual scenarios, or learn about this approach
You will learn:

• about the importance of storytelling and decision-making in developing engaging learning experiences
• how to design and plan your own Virtual Scenarios
• about the features of available Virtual Scenario authoring software tools and their suitability

I hope you’ll find the courses interesting – I think I might be interested in the Virtual Scenarios, so if you think about participating in this course, I’ll see you there!

Enjoy!