Free online courses. Free is my favorite amount to pay. Who doesn’t like free?
A couple of months ago, Spice wrote an article about free online courses, you can check that article out by clicking here.
After that article was published, reader John Foster wrote a comment: “Good article but it needs some links to MOOC’s. We need a little help in that direction please.”
Well, here at Beans, Bullets, Bandages and You we aim to please, so I’ve put together a few free online courses that might interest preppers.
What exactly are these free courses?
As Spice wrote in her original article, they called Massive Online Open Courses, or MOOC for short.
The heart of most of these MOOCS is a set of short video presentations. The videos tend to be five to fifteen minutes each (almost as if the educators guessed we’d be trying to fit these courses into a busy life). Some are college-lecture style, with the expert walking you through a topic. Interviews, with the educator talking to one of lead people in a particular topic in the world, are a popular format. The educator may walk you through a sample problem.
There are often question sets, too. Practice problems let you develop your own skills, if the topic lends itself to them. Knowledge test questions keep you focussed and call attention to points the educators don’t want you to miss. Discussion questions invite you to think more deeply and develop your own point of view.
If the course has a set schedule (more on that below), discussion boards let you share ideas and get feedback from other learners, and often the educators as well.
Enough talk, Salty, drop the links!
These are just a small sampling of some of the classes that area available. Hopefully, this will give you a good place to start in finding free online classes to further your education.
Agriculture
Sheep in the Land of Fire and Ice – What do sheep, volcanoes and glaciers have in common? Take this course to see how human land uses, like sheep grazing, over just a few centuries can be an equally strong driving force of landscapes as volcanoes and glaciers over millennia.
Sustainable Soil Management: Soil for life – Learn why soil is so important, how it’s being threatened and what we can do to protect this natural resource so vital to our lives.
Solar & Alternative Power
Batteries, Fuel Cells, and their Role in Modern Society – This course is an introduction to batteries and fuel cells – the cornerstones of electromobility and renewable energy.
Co-Creating Sustainable Cities – Learn how citizen’s co-creation is key in making cities worldwide more sustainable
Solar Energy in Hot Desert Climates – Desert regions are attractive for solar energy, with much sunshine and many opportunities for utility-scale and residential applications. However, their harsh climate creates challenges for photovoltaic (PV) module performance, reliability and energy forecasting.
Natural Disasters – Learn the science behind different types of natural disasters and our ability, or inability, to control and predict these events.
Disasters & Preparedness
Monitoring Volcanoes and Magma Movements – The course covers magma movements in volcanoes and how they can be inferred from ground based and satellite monitoring techniques, including studies of earthquakes, ground deformation, and volcanic gas release. Case studies are presented.
Nutrition And Food
Nutrition, Heart Disease and Diabetes – Discover the latest insights on the importance of nutrition and lifestyle in the development and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus in the online open course Nutrition, Heart disease and Diabetes.
The Science of Beer – Are you interested in more than just the taste of beer? Discover what’s in your beer, how it’s made and marketed and the effect it has on your body and health.
Nutrition and Health: Human Microbiome – Learn how you can impact your health by balancing your gut health; how your microbiome together with your diet can improve normal gut function. A balanced microbiome and nutritional intake can avoid disorders like IBS, obesity and diabetes.
Nutrition and Cancer – Discover the latest insights on the role of diet, nutrition and lifestyle in the prevention, occurrence and progression of cancer.
Nutrition and Health: Macronutrients and Overnutrition – Learn the fundamentals of nutrition and its impact on human health.
Some Science Related Courses You Might Consider
The Science of Parenting – Move beyond the chatter and opinion surrounding parenting and learn about the scientific findings and data that can help you make sensible, informed parenting decisions.
Reclaiming Broken Places: Introduction to Civic Ecology – Explore why and how people come together to care for nature and community in cities and after disasters.
Healthy Ageing in 6 Steps. Let your environment do the work – Learn how to make healthy choices and adjustments to your lifestyle and environment to help you live a healthier, happier and longer life.
Injury Prevention for Children & Teens – Injuries are the #1 cause of death among children and teens. This course lays a foundation for the prevention of child and teen injuries.
The Biology of Water and Health – Fundamentals – Learn from Tufts University about the provision of safe water, sanitation and sustainability to improve global public health.
Take Your Medicine: How to Be a Savvy Consumer – Discover how to become a savvy healthcare consumer.
Lifestyle Medicine Fundamentals – Learn key concepts of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic approaches used to prevent and treat the root causes of lifestyle-related, chronic diseases.
CARE: Promotion of Healthy Ageing – Learn how to promote active and healthy ageing when caring for an older adult. Explore lifestyle-related factors and their role in the prevention of diseases and disorders in old age.
Lifestyle Medicine Treatments of Chronic Disease – Part 1 – Learn specific lifestyle medicine treatment protocols for a variety of chronic diseases, such as breast cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
thank you again for all of your good advice. this one of the few websites left that is worth the time to check out. I know that it is a lot of work, but thank you