Try the Free Online Courses!

For most of us who are too busy to upgrade our skills and knowledge, and consequently our resumes, online learning or e-learning may be the answer! Of course if we can just divert some of our energy from surfing facebook to this, we may take advantage of the many free online courses we find in the web. Among the sites I found for this are; COURSERA (https://www.coursera.org/), KHAN ACADEMY (www.khanacademy.org), OPENCULTURE.COM, and of course ALISON (www.alison.com). 

  

I’ve completed two courses in the online learning site Alison (This is something I can add-up in my Resume); one is Tourism Studies, the other is Psychology. Among the e-learning sites I mentioned, Alison has, by far, the most organized materials albeit too simple. However, I recommend this for those who are just starting (the other sites may require you to submit research).

My Advice: Yup, you can cheat your way to completing the course online (e.g. by clicking ‘done’ when you haven’t read the materials yet) but in the end what matters is how much you’ve learned.  The Diploma or the Certificates are mere scrap papers if you have not acquired the skills and the knowledge identified in the course’s learning outcomes.

Note however that most of these learning sites (like Alison) require payment for the Diploma/Certificate (the parchment is shipped from outside our country, and the frames are awesome;). The ‘transcript’ or the ‘Learner Record’, however is free and is downloadable as PDF file. Further, upon completion of a course, Alison will e-mail you  an 'evidence' (a personalized company letter) that may be attached in your resume as a record of such ‘accomplishment’ if you can't afford the Diploma/Certificate (haha!). 

If that does not motivate you, just imagine inserting “Diploma in Social Studies” in your Resume’s ‘Education’ part!