MOOCs

MOOCs are massive open online courses but what are they, should you be doing them, are they any good and what qualifications can you get from them? Now online courses are not an EU thing, but Open University has been running like this for years. When I was at university, I did one of my modules online but recently there has been a massive explosion in them, their interest, and they type of them, and they have a fancy new name, MOOCs. Now the thing that is different about these is that they are open. You can study the course for free. You only pay if you finish and when you want to get an actual qualification or a real certificate in it to prove that you've done the course so all the studying, all the watching the videos is free and open to everybody. These can then be used as part of credit towards a degree.

If you're applying to university, these can be a useful way to show that you're interested in a subject so that you've put a bit of effort in, that you've found out more about an issue. You don't necessarily have to pay for the qualification, but the fact that you can talk about doing it is going to be really valuable in interviews. If you want to have a look at all the ones that are available the significant provider in the UK is called Future Learn. You can just go in there, have a search, look at all the courses that they're providing from universities, excellent universities, all over the world. While at the moment in the UK you can't get full degrees by doing its open online courses. You can get complete degrees online via the Open University, but if you're thinking about trying something out, then these are a fantastic, fantastic way to start.