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Something New (No 6)
Oct. 14th, 2018 04:28 pmThis month's something new was actually begun last month and came as quite a surprise. Because I'm registered for Parliament Week activities for Brownies I receive a regular email. One of those emails mentioned a free online course organised by Royal Holloway College called "Beyond The Ballot" about the campaign for UK women's right to vote. It looked interesting, and so I signed up.
This course is run under the auspices of Future Learn who run a large number of courses. I had a glance through what else was available and found a two week course called WW! Heroism: Through Art & Film, run by Leeds University. The subject matter was interesting, so I signed up for that too, since the original course I was interested in isn't being run until next month. It was a fascinating course and I learnt various things. It touched on areas I already knew something about, and including considering a modern representation of the war on televsion or film, with one of the suggestions being Blackadder.
Having completed that course I looked around to see what else I could do, and have completed both Empire: Controversies of British Imperialism (Exeter University) and England in the Time of Richard III (Leicester University). I didn't enjoy the first - wasn't keen on the way they presented the material and didn't feel I learnt very much - I had lots of questions and maybe I needed a more specific course; but the second course I found fascinating. I already knew a certain amount about Richard III, and this course introduced a lot of information about normal life at the time which I really enjoyed.
I've now got 13 courses on my 'Wishlist' and hopefully some of them will be running next spring which is when I shall probably be looking to do some more.
I believe the courses are available to people anywhere in the world. They are free, although there is the option to upgrade, which give the option to take a test to be awarded a certificate and the material then belongs to the reader. Otherwise the material is only available for a limited time. I'd definitely recommend it for anyone like me who wants an easy way to learn a bit more about a subject which interests them.
This course is run under the auspices of Future Learn who run a large number of courses. I had a glance through what else was available and found a two week course called WW! Heroism: Through Art & Film, run by Leeds University. The subject matter was interesting, so I signed up for that too, since the original course I was interested in isn't being run until next month. It was a fascinating course and I learnt various things. It touched on areas I already knew something about, and including considering a modern representation of the war on televsion or film, with one of the suggestions being Blackadder.
Having completed that course I looked around to see what else I could do, and have completed both Empire: Controversies of British Imperialism (Exeter University) and England in the Time of Richard III (Leicester University). I didn't enjoy the first - wasn't keen on the way they presented the material and didn't feel I learnt very much - I had lots of questions and maybe I needed a more specific course; but the second course I found fascinating. I already knew a certain amount about Richard III, and this course introduced a lot of information about normal life at the time which I really enjoyed.
I've now got 13 courses on my 'Wishlist' and hopefully some of them will be running next spring which is when I shall probably be looking to do some more.
I believe the courses are available to people anywhere in the world. They are free, although there is the option to upgrade, which give the option to take a test to be awarded a certificate and the material then belongs to the reader. Otherwise the material is only available for a limited time. I'd definitely recommend it for anyone like me who wants an easy way to learn a bit more about a subject which interests them.
