Do you use MOOC yet?

This year I find myself relying on MOOCs more often.  What is a MOOC?  It stands for massive open online course.  I remember how as a thirteen year old (way back when!) I relied on my mum's Reader's Digest Cookery Annual to complete a Cookery (it wasn't called Home Economics yet!) assignment.  It was a beautiful book with illustrations of fruit and vegetables by season.

 These days a quick google search or Wikipedia can often answer questions really quickly.  MOOCs replace classroom learning, lessons and coursework are all online and mostly free (some have additional paid-for features).

 Here are three MOOCs to try:

 1.  Lynda
Founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman, Lynda offers courses from Software Development to Photography.  This popular training provider is used by LinkedIn Learning and is offered free to all members of Auckland Libraries.
2.  edX
I'm starting to learn Python and R for work so edX is really useful.  Many of the courses are Microsoft verified and for an additional fee you can be certified.
3.  Coursera
Coursera includes recorded video lectures by top instructors from the world’s best universities and educational institutions. Note that not all courses are free.  Coursera group courses into specializations.  To access free material you need to go to each course element individually.  This is a good link to start from  - Coursera Free Courses.

Although not a free service, I want to give a special mention to Pluralsight.  The monthly subscription is in US$ but you get what you pay for.  In my blog post Never stop learning I talked about learning Tableau.  I did a 5 hour course on Pluralsight - Data Analysis Fundamentals with Tableau and it really helped my understanding and improved my capabilites.  I would recommend it!
Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

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