You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

During the August Toppler, Lisa mentioned that she had taken some online courses, which turned out to be MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). I'd taken one before and found them a great way to learn about something you're interested in. I've also taken classes (usually one day) through my library, rec centers, and extension services.

So, are you currently taking a class or thinking of taking one? About what? Through who?

I thought it would be nice to have a list of possibilities if you're thinking about taking a class in something that interests you.

MOOC
coursera.org
futurelearn.com
canvas.net

Other
library
recreation center
extension service

I have done several MOOC courses with Futurelearn over the past year and have three more coming up in the next couple of months:

Superpowers of the Ancient World: The Near East (September)
Agincourt 1415: Myth and Reality (October)
WW1: Lessons and Legacy of the Great War (November)

Futurelearn offers a lot of courses in a wide range of subjects but most of the ones I have taken part in have been history or literature based. My favourite courses so far have been 'England in the time of King Richard III', 'Literature of the English Country House' and 'World War One: A History in 100 Stories' which looked at the Anzac involvement in the First World War.

I've taken a course in historical fiction through Coursera, which I thought was really well done. I finally got around to checking out FutureLearn and have already signed up for two courses - neither of which was the original topic I went to look for. Did I say two? I meant three, but all I meant to do was bring up Canvas Network. ☺

Nutrition and Wellbeing started two weeks ago, but I'm hoping to catch up before Monday. I'm really hoping that this type of presentation will make me want to make better choices.

Health and Wellness starts 9/14. Hopefully another motivator to start looking after myself better. I am already overweight and have diabetes, and am at risk for other health issues.

Mindfullness starts 9/14.

Mindfulness is essentially about being more aware and awake in every moment of your life. It is about intentionally paying attention to each moment, being fully engaged in whatever is happening around and within you, with an attitude of friendliness and compassion.

I'd really like to be more mindful. I find myself not participating in things and closing myself off a lot of times. Also, my mind gets so scattered that nothing gets done. Right now I'm trying to do dour things at once and it's taking a lot longer and it's too easy to get distracted.

I haven't even gotten to the courses I want to take about history! They'll have to wait, but that doesn't mean I won't be looking :~D

I looked at the 'Mindfullness' course but didn't sign up for it this time. If they run it again sometime (which they often do) I will probably do it then ;)

I really must check out Coursera but I just know I will end up signing up for loads! I really enjoy MOOCs. I think they are a fun way to learn and I enjoy the interaction with other learners too.

Lisa, I'm going to have to join you in the Agincourt course. I have Bernard Cornwell's book downloaded and will wait to listen to it then.

Yay! I will look out for you :) I read Azincourt a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Hopefully the course will be good too. I am a sucker for anything to do with medieval history so my hopes are high.

I have never heard of MOOC's. I will definitely be checking these out! I could probably even use some of the courses towards my work training goals for the year. The company I work for wants each employee to have an average of so many hours training per year and I'm way behind. The majority of the training calls and webinars they have don't pertain to the work I do with the company so I have trouble wanting to sit in on them. Unfortunately I've forced myself to listen in on the calls that have absolutely nothing to do with my job or my interests just so I can reach the required number of hours.

That's very interesting.

I thought some of you could be interested in a course starting in Oct. 19 about Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales in futurelearn.com. I'll probably doing it. Will try to decide this week.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/h...

Not online study, but I've just booked on to do a Sourdough making course. It's being run by the same place I recently did my Indian cookery class. It's not until March but I'm already looking forward to it.

Sounds interesting, Sarah. I don't really like to cook, anything, never. I actually hate to cook. (I cook everyday, though). Sometimes I wonder if taking some courses make me more interested in cooking. Or at least less painful...

Future Learn has a free "start writing fiction" course running which looks really good. Thought some of you guys might be interested https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/s... if i had more time at the moment, i might have done it. Another time maybe.

Following on from our chat in the incorrect thread. Oops. Bad mod.

Kristie, Future Learn is available worldwide. Pretty sure Open Learn is too. They do paid for stuff hut have loads of free ones too. They can be done online or downloaded as pdf or kindle file to read through. You get unlimited access to those. Whereas futurelearn, you only get access to them for the duration of the course. You can upgrade though and have accesd for it forever though. They are ran by lots of universities so good info. I like these as they are a mix of videos and articles to read. Really bitesize. Interesting subjects. Someone recommended Coursera to be recently but i daren't check it out at the moment.

Excellent! Thanks for all the info, Sarah.

I finished two FutureLearn courses recently: Beyond diagnosis: Is psychiatric diagnosis helpful? by University of Liverpool, and Understanding anxiety, depression and CBT by University of Reading. I totally recommend them to anyone interested in the topic, when they are around again, of course.

Sarah, did you have the chance to do the CBT one?

I am currently on week 3. It's good. Most of the content so far i have been aware of but it's nice to be reminded of stuff and it has triggered some useful lines of thinking.

I will have to give the psychiatric diagnosis one a go - soynds interesting.

Open University have a free online course - Understanding Autism - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/scienc...# I thought you might be intetested Sandra!

Oh, Thank you! I'll check it out.

There are Cousera and EdX .These are available worldwide too.
I have done some courses by MOMA and some on literature.They were good.

I'm not sure if you are familiar with how FutureLearn works, but usually you have free access to the courses for a few weeks, and you have to pay or "buy" the course if you want a certificate (which also will give you permanent access to it, beyond the due date). Well, until June 30th you can join 30 different courses from different Australian universities and have for free permanent access and a certificate, as if you had payed for it. You have to join before June 30th, though. Don't pay attention to the start dates (some of them have started already) because since you are getting permanent access to them you can do them whenever you want. Here is the link:

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/c...

Sandra wrote: "I'm not sure if you are familiar with how FutureLearn works, but usually you have free access to the courses for a few weeks, and you have to pay or "buy" the course if you want a certificate (whic..."

Thanks. There is a few that do interest me. And to top the challenge: Australian accents! I really have a bit of trouble understanding it. I do not hear enough of it to get used to it.

Thanks Sandra. I'll check them out.

*snort* The accents make you stronger!

A lot of these are by our best unis. Some are not, but that's okay. It's free. But I'm impressed with the Group of 8 unis in there (like "Ivy League" or "Russell Group" in US or UK)

Rusalka wrote: "But I'm impressed with the Group of 8 unis in there"

Pandemics do miracles?

I haven't thought about the accent. :)

I did one from Monash a while back (i think that was what it was called) but i'm quite used to the accent so I didn't have a problem with the course. It was really good. I think it was on logical thinking if i remember correctly.

I did Biological Psychology by Monash University. They have kind of a Psychology Series. It was good.

I'm glad you guys enjoyed them :D

Monash was the Go8 uni I noticed (USyd and UWA where there too I saw). I've done a lot of work with Monash in the past, and they do some really interesting things in this space. So great to hear that you guys have had good experiences with the course by them.