Interesting Online Courses to Take

Coursera, Udemy, EdX… Undoubtedly, these names are sure to ring a bell. These sites have a myriad of online courses, with their contents ranging from anything and everything that one can imagine. Such mass open online courses (MOOCs) have become increasingly popular, especially with Covid-19 forcing everyone to remain largely at home. Along with the adoption of remote learning, MOOCs also let us learn at our self-directed pace, eliminating any unnecessary stress (frankly, a huge personal plus).

With its sheer accessibility and the wide range of courses to choose from, the paradox of choice may ironically kick in, leaving some of us at a loss of which course to actually take.

However, fret not! Here at CNM Types, we have compiled a short list of courses that we hope would be beneficial to you. For these courses, you may choose to purchase a certificate or audit the course for free.

PS. You can actually use your UEs to take edX courses (up to 8MCs of UEs). Upon presentation of your verified certificate, you can claim back the cost of the course from NUS! Furthermore, the graded MCs are pass/fail, so they won't count towards your CAP.

To access this, go to LumiNUS > My Modules > edX Modules, and you can see the whole list of approved edX courses

1. HTML, CSS, JavaScript for Web Developers

Source: hackr.io

First up, we have HTML, CSS, JavaScript for Web Developers, a highly-rated coding course. This is offered by John Hopkins University on Coursera. Through this course, you will get to learn how to code web pages using CSS and HTML. You will also be introduced to JavaScript. This course is very comprehensive and does not require any prior background knowledge in coding.

We feel that this course would be very useful for everyone. Coding is often touted as an essential skill nowadays, especially in our fast-paced digital world. This would also be a great addition to your portfolio! Furthermore, for CNM majors, this course can be preparation for NM2207 Computational Media Literacy (which is often thought to be an intimidating module to take), or just as a gauge of your interest in coding. This course serves as a good overall introduction to some of the basic fundamentals and who knows, it may even kickstart your interest in coding!

2. The Science of Well-Being

Source: Coursera

Next, The Science of Well-Being is another highly popular course. This self-improvement course is offered by Yale University on Coursera. This course aims to improve your productive habits and increase your level of happiness through a series of activities and challenges. You will get to question your misconceptions of happiness, overcome your biases and rewire your thinking. Important topics of wellness, happiness and self-care are explored in these 10 lessons.

Our personal well-being strongly ties in with our self-confidence, motivation and sense of self. Being content with yourself and your abilities is the root of motivating yourself to achieve success. This well-designed course prompts our deep self-reflection and guides us to improve our personal happiness through practising the various strategies covered. This would indeed be an enlightening course for anyone. If you are looking to improve your state of mind, don’t hesitate to give this a shot!

3. New Languages

Source: EdX

Interested in learning languages but unwilling to risk the steep bell curves of language modules? EdX has a range of language courses to choose from, be it Korean, Italian or Spanish.

Although learning a new language is definitely an admirable skill that also exposes us to more cultures, it can be extremely daunting. Being thrown into a whole new world of foreign words, it is incredibly easy to feel lost and unsure of where to start. However, we feel that these courses deliver a well-structured approach to learning, easing the steep learning curve. The courses are also grouped by individual level of proficiencies, allowing you to start your learning journey efficiently.

Here are all our recommendations, we hope you will find the courses as useful as we did! With so many free online courses available, what are you waiting for? Simply head down to the sites to register for any course!