Horses For Courses by Anthony Heard
Many regular readers of my ITP blog will know that I have always been an advocate for the Future Learn series of courses available online in a wide variety of subjects.
The Future Learn programme is 100% online and you can study courses provided by world-class universities and industry experts. You can develop your career, learn a new skill, or pursue your hobbies with flexible courses.
So whether you want to develop as a professional or discover new hobbies, there's an online course for that. You can even take your learning further with online programs and degrees.
You will join millions of people from around the world learning together. This type of learning is easy and convenient. Most of the courses require just a few hours study per week but obviously you can invest as much or as little time as you wish.
These courses allow us to meet educators from top universities and cultural institutions, who share their experiences through videos, articles, quizzes and discussions. The other major benefit is that you meet other people taking part in the course and you learn so much from each other.
The other major thing about the Future Learn courses are that they are entirely FREE, unless you decide to take advantage of getting certificates of achievement on completion of each course for which there is a charge.
I have completed 18 courses with Future Learn over the last few years and I have found them to be interesting, stimulating and especially engaging during the recent Covid-19 lockdown period.
I wanted to give a special mention to 2 of the Future Learn corses that I have completed recently as I found them to be useful to me as someone living with ITP.
The first of these courses is COVID-19: PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT, WELLBEING AND MENTAL HEALTH hosted by MAUDSLEY LEARNING.
The second course is FOOD AS MEDICINE hosted by MONASH UNIVERSITY.
Both were especially useful for me as someone living with a rare autoimmune illness and having been “shielding” during the Covid-19 pandemic.
I found the first course so beneficial because it got me to focus on the bigger picture as far as Covid-19 is concerned. It is very common and indeed very much a natural thing that we all tend to focus on our own issues and problems during times of crisis.
The Covid-19 course got me to think about the wider impact of the pandemic and lockdown. Looking at the implications of what was and continues to be an unprecedented situation allowed me to focus on the bigger picture and not just worry about my own part in the overall tableau. Basically it allowed me to put things in perspective and reminded me that none of us are alone. As the English poet John Donne once famously said “No man is an island”.
In regard to the Food as Medicine course this allowed me to really think about my diet, nutrition and how it impacts on our overall health. For anyone with any interest at all in food, nutrition, diet and health this course is invaluable. It looks at the many components of food, how they are used by our bodies, how much of them we need and where we source them. It also looks at how we eat what we eat and what combinations of foods are most beneficial.
If you wish to check out either of the two course that I have mentioned or just want to browse the wide ranging menu of courses available, I can thoroughly recommend that you have a look at the following link… https://www.futurelearn.com
Happy Learning