The world has ground to a halt to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, and we are all trying to find new ways to adapt - economically, physically and mentally. The past few weeks we have seen drastic changes all over the world. We’re all slowly adjusting to this new norm — social distancing, canceled classes, and working from home. It can be easy to resign ourselves to binging on Netflix and carbs, which is perfectly reasonable, but, to keep both our minds and our bodies healthy, it’s important that we continue learning and finding new ways to challenge ourselves.
Why E-Learning?
On a personal front - as someone who is in the constant quest for learning the next new thing, I am using this period for self development, to learn more about the fields both related and unrelated to work. Doing so, has really been a saving grace - learning something new and interesting each day, but more importantly, helps keep my brain active. This situation is not going to last in perpetuity and we can utilize it productively to improve ourselves and our knowledge.
8 Online Learning Platforms to explore
I’ve come across many online platforms that are providing free or paid education courses for individuals looking to gain more knowledge in areas of their interest. Let me introduce you to each platform and also guide you to some courses that I personally like, focusing the Food, Nutrition and Health industry:
1. FutureLearn
One of the UK's long established educational institutions - it offers a diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions from around the world. They place a high focus on the community aspect of online learning, transforming it into a social experience with plenty of opportunities to discuss with fellow students, collaborate and even mentor other students in the process. Joining the platform is completely free of charge as are most courses, which range from digital marketing, engineering, psychology to nutrition, history and politics.
My recommendations: Food as Medicine, Food for Thought: The Relationship Between Food, Gut, and Brain, Superfoods: Myths and Truths
Founded by Harvard and MIT, EdX is another e-learning platform you can turn to for self-education. It has almost 3.000 different courses among which hundreds are offered at free of cost. The courses that the platform features are from the majority of top-ranked universities in the world and industry-leading companies such as MIT, Boston University, UC Berkeley and many others. At edX, you can educate yourself in Business, Management, Computer and Data science, Nutrition, Health and Medicine and many others.
My recommendations: The Health Effects of Climate Change, Leading in the Digital Age, Strategic Social Media Marketing
3. Coursera
This one is well-known for its value and prestige as it collaborates with top universities around the world who are responsible for developing courses like Stanford, Princeton, and more. It is considered one of the most professional online learning platforms out there offering 4.000 free courses, so there’s plenty to learn and that too free of cost.
My recommendations: Nutrition and Lifestyle in Pregnancy, Child Nutrition and Cooking, Standard Introduction to Food and Health, Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship
4. Udemy
One of the top e--learning platforms in the world, Udemy is a great choice if you’re looking for a very large catalogue of courses at a reasonable price. To develop personal skills and get quick but comprehensive knowledge in various subjects, explore the free courses available at Udemy. It also allows content creators to curate their own courses and teach them online. Every subject that comes to mind is on the platform, from doing yoga for beginners to learning languages.
My recommendations: Food Intolerance and allergy diploma, Sports nutrition crash course, Mindfulness for anxiety and sleep, Leadership, management & entrepreneurship in the 21st century, First pitch checklist to present your startup idea
5. Udacity
Looking to round out your profile and improve your CV? Then free courses on Udacity are what you need. You can get familiar with improving your resume, writing a kickass cover letter and improving your overall networking using Linkedin with these courses.
My recommendations: Strengthen your LinkedIn, Refresh Your Resume, Craft Your Cover Letter
6. Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a non-profit organisation whose mission is “to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.” They offer free courses for both learners and teachers as well as offering lessons for students from kindergarten through early college, with topics including math, grammer, science, history, computer programming and many more.
If you want to revise your basics in Biology then explore this: Health and Medicine
7. Harvard Online Learning: As the name suggests, Harvard Online Learning (also known as HarvardX) is a service offered by the prestigious Harvard University. The site includes a mixture of free and paid online courses and modules from the Harvard curriculum. The majority of courses tend to fall into business, computer science, and finance, but there are still a few healthcare courses worth checking out. Currently, Harvard Online Learning offers 34 healthcare courses such as Cognitive Fitness and Principles of Biochemistry, Immunology. Please note that not all the courses are free, however, so double check the price before registering. Want to know more in the area of business? Visit Harvard Business School. A full list of online courses and other forms of digital learning from across Harvard is available.
8. Codecademy
Codeacademy is an interactive online learning platform that teaches you how to code in multiple different programming languages. Programming plays an important role in setting up a website. Subjects to explore include from Web Development, Programming to Data Science.
My recommendations: Analyze data with Python, Learn Python, Become a Web Developer
Now, it is up to you: Just do it! And - as always, stay safe, stay healthy and let’s come out of this crisis in a much better shape than when we entered it.
This article was written by Bhargavi Arvind. Bhargavi is a nutrition expert originally from India, specialized in clinical nutrition and lives in Cologne. She is providing nutritional consultation services and is a part of Nutrition Hub's team since 2019.
