Online Learning/Home study

[Dmas]

I'm currently in my first week of being furloughed by my employer, not long moved into a new house so I'm relatively busy, however I'm slightly panicked about how well my current employer will recover from this and think redundancies are almost certain with furlough extending to June, so I'm looking for ways I can learn something new with my time at home to both beef up my CV just incase and to have something interesting and worthwhile to do with my time.

im willing to pay for courses if the courses are recognised qualifications but I'm not sure where to look or if some places are running scams? I've seen groupon offer courses but no idea if they are worthwhile for example.

anyone any info or tips on this? Other issues are I don't have a laptop, just an older iPad, possibility I could borrow a laptop if it's needed though.

[Mibbes Aye]

I'm currently in my first week of being furloughed by my employer, not long moved into a new house so I'm relatively busy, however I'm slightly panicked about how well my current employer will recover from this and think redundancies are almost certain with furlough extending to June, so I'm looking for ways I can learn something new with my time at home to both beef up my CV just incase and to have something interesting and worthwhile to do with my time.

im willing to pay for courses if the courses are recognised qualifications but I'm not sure where to look or if some places are running scams? I've seen groupon offer courses but no idea if they are worthwhile for example.

anyone any info or tips on this? Other issues are I don't have a laptop, just an older iPad, possibility I could borrow a laptop if it's needed though.

If you are serious about a qualification then having a look at the Open University may be worthwhile. I am not sure at what level they are operating just now, but given they are all about ease of access, studying from home should be fine. There is a financial cost though.

While not offering formal qualifications, there are various foreign language apps. Duolingo seems to be popular, is free and my parents-in-law use it for Portuguese. It also does all the other main European languages. If you fancy learning some Czech then the Nemo app is good! For languages, there is a benefit in having a tutor and it actually works quite well with social distancing because you can just use Skype or FaceTime. I study Czech and used Listen and Learn Languages, a London-based company, who set me up with a (relatively) local tutor, so there was the scope for face-to-face before lockdown, but it works perfectly well online. It isn’t cheap but it has been value for money, in terms of really good input from the tutor.

[Since90+2]

If you are serious about a qualification then having a look at the Open University may be worthwhile. I am not sure at what level they are operating just now, but given they are all about ease of access, studying from home should be fine. There is a financial cost though.

While not offering formal qualifications, there are various foreign language apps. Duolingo seems to be popular, is free and my parents-in-law use it for Portuguese. It also does all the other main European languages. If you fancy learning some Czech then the Nemo app is good! For languages, there is a benefit in having a tutor and it actually works quite well with social distancing because you can just use Skype or FaceTime. I study Czech and used Listen and Learn Languages, a London-based company, who set me up with a (relatively) local tutor, so there was the scope for face-to-face before lockdown, but it works perfectly well online. It isn’t cheap but it has been value for money, in terms of really good input from the tutor.

What would you recommend for learning Spanish?

[Dmas]

If you are serious about a qualification then having a look at the Open University may be worthwhile. I am not sure at what level they are operating just now, but given they are all about ease of access, studying from home should be fine. There is a financial cost though.

While not offering formal qualifications, there are various foreign language apps. Duolingo seems to be popular, is free and my parents-in-law use it for Portuguese. It also does all the other main European languages. If you fancy learning some Czech then the Nemo app is good! For languages, there is a benefit in having a tutor and it actually works quite well with social distancing because you can just use Skype or FaceTime. I study Czech and used Listen and Learn Languages, a London-based company, who set me up with a (relatively) local tutor, so there was the scope for face-to-face before lockdown, but it works perfectly well online. It isn’t cheap but it has been value for money, in terms of really good input from the tutor.

Thanks il take a look at the open uni, I have looked here before I quite fancied data analysis but my maths wasn’t up to scratch.

I’ve used Duolingo as well as I’d really like to learn german carried on from school but I feel you get to a certain level and it becomes guess work rather than learning anything.

[Smartie]

I've done a couple of courses in the past with future learn.

https://www.futurelearn.com

Most of the courses are free (unless you want to pay for a certificate to say you've done the course) and it's brilliant for little things you might have a mild interest in but not want to pursue in any great depth. I've done a couple of business/ leadership things with them, I've done a photography course that was directly related to my work and I've even done a short course on identifying the dead. I think they even do short courses on football related subjects too.


Career-wise - this is probably a decent time to ask yourself the "where do I see myself in 5 years question". Obviously this comes with problems during a time of great uncertainty as there will be a lot that lies outwith our control over the next few months but if you were considering a change in direction anyway maybe now is the time for starting that change in direction - or at least familiarising yourself with the pros and cons of other options if your current line of work is vulnerable.

Good luck.

[The_Exile]

What would you recommend for learning Spanish?

There's an app who's name escapes me at the moment where you put your native tongue and what language you want to learn, works best if you know a wee bit of your language but what it does is connect you to someone who's native tongue is the language you want to speak and they're looking to learn English. It's very very good, I found I picked up the rhythm of the language and the accents etc really well from it (I used it when I was learning Italian, which is apparently one of the easiest language for English speakers to learn as there's already a fair bit of Italian language within our day-to-day lives, food for example).

Edit: App is called Tandem.

https://www.tandem.net/

[Pretty Boy]

What would you recommend for learning Spanish?

Duolingo us fine for Spanish is you want to learn how to hold a fairly simple conversation. It will teach you some vocabulary and a few stock phrases and a bit about sentence structure.

Where it falls down is the lack of any real theory and explanation of the construct of the language. You will realise there are different verb endings because of their usage in sentences but the explanation as to why isn't really there. Without that as your vocabulary increases you will find it difficult to relate the correct ending to the word based on whether it is 1st or 3rd person, past, present or future. Without that you will always struggle to truly grasp a language like Spanish.

As an example take the phrases:

I play football
You played football
We will play football

In Spanish 'jugar' means 'to play'. You can't say yo (I) jugar futbol. It doesn't make sense. The correct 3 phrases are:

Juego futbol
Jugaste futbol
Jugaremos futbol

You can add the yo, tu (you) and nosotras (we) to the start of the sentence but it isn't required. Duolingo hints at this but it really takes a more classroom structured way of learning to truly grasp it.

[The_Exile]

Thanks il take a look at the open uni, I have looked here before I quite fancied data analysis but my maths wasn’t up to scratch.

I’ve used Duolingo as well as I’d really like to learn german carried on from school but I feel you get to a certain level and it becomes guess work rather than learning anything.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology and https://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy (For maths, loads of free content and easy to follow. Khan Academy is absolutely superb for Maths stuff on youtube)

For languages, you need to speak it, there's only so much you can learn from books and study materials, you really need to start speaking the language for it to start sticking properly.

[Scouse Hibee]

I'm currently in my first week of being furloughed by my employer, not long moved into a new house so I'm relatively busy, however I'm slightly panicked about how well my current employer will recover from this and think redundancies are almost certain with furlough extending to June, so I'm looking for ways I can learn something new with my time at home to both beef up my CV just incase and to have something interesting and worthwhile to do with my time.

im willing to pay for courses if the courses are recognised qualifications but I'm not sure where to look or if some places are running scams? I've seen groupon offer courses but no idea if they are worthwhile for example.

anyone any info or tips on this? Other issues are I don't have a laptop, just an older iPad, possibility I could borrow a laptop if it's needed though.

Online NEBOSH course some decent offers just now but will cost about £400-£600

[goosano]

What would you recommend for learning Spanish?

Duolingo is OK to start with but is limited as described above.

Excellent resources that are free

Language Transfer-The thinking method- course of 90 lessons
Coffee Break Spanish-podcasts from beginner up
Notes in Spanish-web and podcasts from beginner level
LightSpeed Spanish-channel on Youtube

[Mibbes Aye]

Duolingo us fine for Spanish is you want to learn how to hold a fairly simple conversation. It will teach you some vocabulary and a few stock phrases and a bit about sentence structure.

Where it falls down is the lack of any real theory and explanation of the construct of the language. You will realise there are different verb endings because of their usage in sentences but the explanation as to why isn't really there. Without that as your vocabulary increases you will find it difficult to relate the correct ending to the word based on whether it is 1st or 3rd person, past, present or future. Without that you will always struggle to truly grasp a language like Spanish.

As an example take the phrases:

I play football
You played football
We will play football

In Spanish 'jugar' means 'to play'. You can't say yo (I) jugar futbol. It doesn't make sense. The correct 3 phrases are:

Juego futbol
Jugaste futbol
Jugaremos futbol

You can add the yo, tu (you) and nosotras (we) to the start of the sentence but it isn't required. Duolingo hints at this but it really takes a more classroom structured way of learning to truly grasp it.

I think these are important points. The Nemo app gives you enough to get by in a shop, bar or restaurant in Czech (not that it is a possibility at the moment) but proper tutoring enables one to learn how to construct sentences properly, rather than just knowing words.

It is curious, because I was always led to believe that Spanish and Italian were easier, relatively speaking, to learn. But Slavic languages, Czech in particular, are very straightforward and make sense. It is just the accents and acutes that cause the bother!

EDIT - meant to add, if you do go down the language route, then finding film or TV is a great way of picking the language up. Likewise, I found that cheap magazines -the equivalent of Hello! or OK! - and children’s books, made it much easier.

[Sylar]

I'm currently in my first week of being furloughed by my employer, not long moved into a new house so I'm relatively busy, however I'm slightly panicked about how well my current employer will recover from this and think redundancies are almost certain with furlough extending to June, so I'm looking for ways I can learn something new with my time at home to both beef up my CV just incase and to have something interesting and worthwhile to do with my time.

im willing to pay for courses if the courses are recognised qualifications but I'm not sure where to look or if some places are running scams? I've seen groupon offer courses but no idea if they are worthwhile for example.

anyone any info or tips on this? Other issues are I don't have a laptop, just an older iPad, possibility I could borrow a laptop if it's needed though.

Check out both edX and Coursera: huge range of subjects delivered by Universities around the world and you can pay for a fully certified version at the end if you want.

[Dmas]

Check out both edX and Coursera: huge range of subjects delivered by Universities around the world and you can pay for a fully certified version at the end if you want.

Thanks for that will do

[GreenNWhiteArmy]

I appreciate these links so thanks all for sharing

[hibeesjoe]

Online NEBOSH course some decent offers just now but will cost about £400-£600Have you done this course? If so would it be possible to get a pm please.

Sent from my MI 8 using Tapatalk

[stu in nottingham]

Check out both edX and Coursera: huge range of subjects delivered by Universities around the world and you can pay for a fully certified version at the end if you want.

I'm doing one of these currently, 'The Science of Well-being (https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being?utm_source=gg&utm_medium=sem&utm_content=09-ScienceofWellBeing-ROW&campaignid=9722859275&adgroupid=96434822781&device=c&keyword=science%20of%20well%20being&matchtype=b&network=g&devicemodel=&adpostion=&creativeid=428916120685&hide_mobile_promo&gclid=CjwKCAjwqpP2BRBTEiwAfpiD-6HZzbl2XfbSQkBhEiUPHsf2Yr47cDLJlMgNOvr2dOHA3E-2mJgqqRoCSmcQAvD_BwE)' provided by Yale University. It's maybe just undergrad level psychology but is useful nonetheless, especially for a layperson. Quite good for monitoring your own mental health in lockdown too. Free unless you particularly wanted the certificate.

There's a ton of free stuff at the OU sight too for most tastes.