Online courses directory (4179)

The essential role of the nurse as caregiver is well recognised but the modern nurse can also be a team leader and healthcare teacher. This free online nursing course provides an overview of the varied dimensions associated with the practical nurse as team leader within the healthcare setting. The course also provides the learner with an overview of the skills, techniques, and approaches required to effectively treat a diverse range of patients. You will also learn about transcultural nursing and how it addresses the issues encountered when providing medical care to diverse cultural groups, or those from cultures different from the nursing professionals. Nursing staff provide essential support during all phases of the surgical cycle, which encompasses the peri-operative, pre-operative, intra-operative and recovery room phases. In this free nursing course the learner is introduced to the vital roles performed by the medical team throughout the surgical experience. This free online nursing course will be of great interest to all health care professionals who would like to learn more about good nursing management practices and techniques that help protect and maintain the health and safety of both nursing professional and patient in any health care setting. The course will also be of great interest to any learner who is planning a career in the area of nursing or other areas of the health care sector.<br />

The free online course Diploma in Occupational Hygiene introduces you to the basic principles associated with occupational hygiene such as the fundamentals of toxicology, human physiology and industrial diseases, and hygiene standards.<br /><br />With the increase of industrial activity, more and more employees are becoming exposed to hazards in the workplace. It is important to know how to monitor and assess different hazards to ensure their health and safety. <br /><br />The course begins by introducing you to human physiology and industrial diseases. You will study different organs of the body and how each can be affected by chemical and physical hazards. You will then learn about the fundamentals of toxicology and hazardous substances, and about chemical and biological hazards and the diseases that can arise from these hazards. <br /><br />You will learn about measuring airborne contamination and the main sampling techniques and equipment that are used to obtain a quantitative estimate of the exposure to substances hazardous. You will learn about the different types of hygiene standards for chemical agents, physical agents, and biological exposure indices, and the importance of health surveillance in the workplace.<br /><br />Next, you will be introduced to physical hazards in the workplace such as noise, vibration, heat/cold and lighting. You will learn about the effects of excessive exposure to these and how to evaluate and control excessive exposure to them in the workplace.<br /><br />This free Diploma course will be of great interest to professionals working in occupational hygiene, health and safety, and workplace safety. It will also be of interest to all learners who are interested in a career in occupational hygiene or related areas.

In this free online course Diploma in Operating Systems you will learn about operating systems (OS) and how they manage computer hardware and software resources and provide common services for computer programs.<br /><br />The course begins by introducing you to operating systems, where an OS sits in a computers system, hardware abstraction and resource management. You will learn about processes and system calls, the structure of an OS and how different CPUs work. The course reviews memory management methods such as virtual memory, and how memory functions when booting up a computer system. <br /><br />You will be introduced to processes, how they are stored in the computer system, how new processes are created and what happens when they are terminated. You will learn about the different types of interrupts and about programmable interrupt controllers for hardware interrupts. You will learn about system calls and CPU context switching. <br /><br />Next, the course covers the two different types of processes for scheduling. You will learn about different scheduling methods for single CPU systems their advantages and disadvantages, about scheduling for multiprocessor systems and about scheduling methods for Linux systems. The course covers how processes communicate and share data with each other, also known as Inter-process communication (IPC). You will learn about different software techniques for IPC and the different ways hardware works with IPC. You will learn about deadlocks and threads in an operating system. <br /><br />Finally, you will learn about different security goals for an operating system. The course reviews access control techniques and the components for developing an access control system. You will also learn about information flow policies, leaky states, and the Biba and Bell-LaPadula models. <br /><br />This free Alison course will be of great interest to computer science students and computer engineers, and anyone who wants to learn about computer operating systems.<br /><br />Perquisites: The learner will need an understanding of C programming and an understanding of computer organisation and architecture. <br />

Operations management is important to any organization, whether they are manufacturing companies producing physical products or organizations offering services. ALISON's free diploma in operations management online course reviews a wide variety of topics from the development of operations management, to the role of the operations manager, the transformation model, planning and scheduling methodologies and practices, and inventory and quality management. <br /><br />The Diploma in Operations Management will give you a thorough understanding and knowledge of operations management and its organizational and managerial applications. <br /><br />The course is ideal for anyone who would like to contribute to the development of an organization in the area of operations management.<br />

ALISON's free online Diploma in Outdoor and Physical Education Studies course gives you the opportunity to gain a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of key topics in outdoor adventure and physical education. The course covers topics such as coaching and training, physical fitness, outdoor activities and adventure. This Diploma is ideal for anyone interested in a career in outdoor activities, adventure activities, the health and fitness industry, or physical education and training, and will greatly enhance your career prospects.<br />

The free online course Diploma in Physical Fitness provides you with the knowledge and skills to develop and maintain your physical fitness and core strength, and remain injury-free while doing so. The course begins by introducing you to the basics of exercise physiology – the branch of science which studies how the body responds and adapts to physical exercise. You will then study the cardiovascular system, examining how it functions and supplies oxygen-rich blood to the active skeletal muscles during exercise. The course then introduces you to three forms of physical activity that will help you develop physical fitness and core strength: running, swimming and strength training. You will gain an understanding of how to use each form of exercise to develop overall strength and fitness. You will also learn about precautions to take in order to remain injury free while exercising. You will examine the importance of warming up, stretching, using the correct equipment and proper technique. The course then introduces three other forms of physical activity that can be used to develop muscular strength, speed and power: flexibility techniques, calisthenics and plyometrics. After separately studying each form of physical activity, you gain an understanding of the effect that each can have on the body. You will then examine sample exercises and stretches, helping you to develop a program to improve strength, flexibility and fitness using various stretches, calisthenics and plyometrics. The course then concludes by covering how to train safely in extreme environments and avoid injury. You will learn about training techniques for three different environments: extreme heat, extreme cold and high altitude. You will learn the necessary precautions that must be taken in order to ensure that you train safely in each environment. Finally, you will examine the most common injuries experienced by those who engage in regular physical activity and learn how to identify, prevent and treat them. This free diploma course will be of great interest to professionals who work in the health and fitness industry, individuals who may be interested in pursuing a career in the health and fitness, or any individual who would like to improve their physical fitness and strength.

The Diploma in Plumbing Studies is a free online course which is designed for anyone who wants to learn about modern-day plumbing. Plumbers are responsible for installing safe and efficient plumbing systems, which reduces the spread of diseases and improves sanitation. In order to do this, a sound understanding of plumbing pipes, tools, and materials; knowledge of the trade and the current practices it promotes is an essential requirement. Divided into two sections, the first section of the course begins with an introduction to plumbing, where a brief history of plumbing from the ancient to the modern times is discussed. This is followed by topics such as safety practices, hazard communication, plumbing tools, and drawings. The second section of the course looks into the materials that are used to make plumbing pipes and fixtures. It discusses the features and the advantages as well as the disadvantages of using materials such as plastic, cast iron, carbon steel. This section also covers the topics on drainage systems and water distribution systems. This free online Diploma course will be of great interest to professionals who want to learn about plumbing. Learners who are interested in knowing how plumbing systems work and the advancements made in the trade will also benefit from the information provided in the course. <br />

This free online project management professional certification course from ALISON offers a comprehensive review of project management such as methodology, tool sets and documentation, and the project life cycle including analysis, planning, design and evaluation. The course also includes a project management case study. <br /><br />With project management in great demand internationally, the diploma in project management course will greatly enhance your career prospects.<br />

ALISON's free online Diploma in Psychology is an engaging course, and is packed with features to help you understand and evaluate classic and contemporary psychology. These online psychology courses are ideal for those who want to gain comprehensive understanding of the main elements of psychology, and will be of great benefit to students in their career progression.<br /><br />Topics covered include classical conditioning, learning theory, the biological basis of behavior, visual perceptions, memory, and cognition.<br /><br />The Research Methodology section allows you to cast a critical eye on the research process, to explore the nature of psychology as an evolving science, and understand some of the ethical issues faced by psychologists.<br />

This free online course Diploma in Public Relations guides you in a step-by-step manner through the practices and theories relevant to the field of public relations. You will study relevant case studies throughout the course as examples of these theories in practice. <br /><br />This diploma course begins by walking you through the basics of public relations, including the historical origins of the PR field. You will also learn about the importance of strategic public relations practices. <br /><br />You will be introduced to the organizational theory surrounding public relations, and learn how to differentiate and prioritize both publics and stakeholders. You will also examine the importance of research to PR, and look at the different types of research and data collection. <br /><br />You will learn about the importance of the RACE process, and look at the practices associated with PR in order to develop a strategic PR plan. You will also examine the ethics, moral analysis, and leadership to public relations, and discuss the best practices to ensure excellent public relations.<br /><br />This free online course will be of great interest to professionals working in the area of public relations, management and communications, and would like to learn more about the practices and theories in PR. <br />

In this free online course Diploma in Python Programming you will learn about the concepts of programming using the Python language. You will learn about creating variables and storing different types of data in them. You will learn about working with dates and time, making decisions with your code and using loops. You will learn about saving and reading files with your program. You will learn about creating functions and handling errors with your code.<br /><br />The course begins by introducing you to the concepts of programming. You will learn about creating your first Python program with Visual Studio. You will learn about commenting in your code and displaying text on screen. You will learn about how Python accepts multiple ways of containing a text string. You will learn about variables and the rules and guidelines for creating variables. You will learn about manipulating variables using built in functions, and briefly what functions are. You will learn about Visual Studio’s IntelliSense feature and its helpfulness when programming. <br /><br />Next, you will learn about storing numeric variables and their difference to string variables. You will learn about performing mathematical operations in your code. You will learn about formatting numbers and converting string variables to numeric variables. You will learn about working with date and time, displacing dates and getting today's date using functions. You will learn about formatting dates and importing libraries to help with the formatting. You will learn about working with time and how to reuse the same functions to format time as you did dates.<br /><br />Next, you will learn about how you code check conditions and make decisions with the if statement. You will learn about the constraints for checking an if statement and how there are generally two different ways to write every if statement. You will learn about using the elif statement for checking multiple conditions. You will learn about combining conditions using logic operations and nesting if statements.<br /><br />Next, you will learn about the concepts of loops, and using the turtle library to draw on screen. You will learn about creating and using for loops. You will also learn about creating and using while loops, and the differences between for and while loops. You will learn about common mistakes made when using loops. <br /><br />Next, you will learn about using and creating lists to store multiple values. You will learn about how to modify and delete from your list. You will learn about searching a list and sorting it. You will learn about creating and writing to files. You will learn about closing the file after your finished using it. You will learn about opening files and reading data from them. You will learn about csv files and what they are. <br /><br />Finally, you will learn about what functions are and how to create functions. You will learn about passing parameters in to your functions and why you should use functions. You will learn what types of errors can occur and how to handle errors. You will learn how to use the try/except statement to handle possible errors and get information on errors that occurred. You will learn how to save functions in a separate file and import them into your main program file as you need them.<br /><br />This free Alison course will be of great interest to those learners who wish to get started in programming and improve their ability to write programs using the Python programming language.

Quality management is an integral component of many businesses and organizations, both small and large. Of all quality management system regimes, the ISO 9000 family of standards is probably the most widely implemented worldwide. <br /><br />ALISON's free online diploma course will introduce you quality management standards such as ISO 9000 and its specifications and costs. Topics such as &quot;&quot;Cost of Quality&quot;&quot; and what tools are used in &quot;&quot;Total Quality Management&quot;&quot; (TQM) are covered in more detail. The &quot;&quot;Cost of Quality&quot;&quot; is a term that's widely used and widely misunderstood. It isn't about the cost of creating a quality product or service, rather it's the cost of not creating a quality product or service. Popular TQM tools include Checklists, Fishbone Diagrams, Histogram Charts, &quot;&quot;Plan-Do-Check-Act&quot;&quot; (PDCA) Cycle and Pareto Diagrams. Any business with high service quality will meet customer needs while remaining economically competitive. <br /><br />In this free online course you will learn what service quality means and how it can be applied within service industries. You will learn more about the practices and procedures that can be used to improve customer satisfaction. <br /><br />This free Diploma course will be of great interest to all quality management professionals who would like to learn more about the application of quality management within an organization, and to all learners who are interested in developing a career in the area of quality management.<br />

The free online course Diploma in Risk Management covers the key topics of risk management and will provide learners with an in depth knowledge of the field. All successful organisations take risks in order to survive and grow, and now more than ever, they need competent people to manage those risks. Throughout this course you will study the nature of risk management and the tools used by risk professionals to mitigate risk. In section 1 you will study the theory of risk management. You will learn about the various forms of risk that risk professionals protect their customers against and the fundamental tools that they use to do so. You will also learn about the various forms of insurance that offer protection against risk to their customers. You will study the process that insurers follow when deciding whether or not to insure a new customer. In section 2 you will study more specific areas of risk. You will learn about property and liability risk. You will study the various risks that property and liability owners face on a daily basis and the manner in which they mitigate such risks. You will then learn about the three life cycle risks that all individuals face, mortality, longevity, and health and disability. You will study the methods by which these risks can be mitigated. This free online Diploma course will be of great interest to anyone working in the area of risk management, those who wish to gain an insight into the industry, and anyone wanting to pursue a career as a risk manager The course will also be of interest to small business owners who wish to learn more about mitigating the risks that they face on a daily basis.<br />

The free online course Diploma in Sales Management provides detailed information about the principles, practices and tools involved in all aspects of the selling process. The course begins by introducing you to the role of sales in everyday life and how selling is vital in all aspects of business. You will learn how Internet-based tools, such as forums, social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, along with web sites, live chat and other interactive features allow customers to participate in the modern sales process. You will learn about customer relationship management tools and how they are used to organise all of a customer's interactions, as well as adaptive selling, which allows you to listen to customers, understand their needs, and adapt your conversation and presentation accordingly. The course then introduces the role of ethics in sales and business. You will learn about the application of ethical behaviour in a business environment and how ethical businesses abide by laws and appropriate regulations. The main factors in relation to customer prospecting are covered in detail. You will learn about the tools used, such as direct marketing and cold calling, as well as the pre-approach, a critical step that helps you earn the customer’s trust. You will learn about the sales approach and the six Cs, which will help you make a good impression when you contact your prospect, as well as techniques like preparation, research, establishing credibility and customisation of the sales approach to the individual customer. You will gain an understanding of the main types of objections that you may encounter in sales and the six strategies that can help you handle virtually any objection. You will also learn about the process for preparing your sales presentation, how you can stay focused on the outcome and how to adapt your presentation to your prospect’s needs. Finally, you are introduced to entrepreneurial selling, and how to research the viability of a business idea by identifying the size of the market to determine if the idea is compelling enough to meet a need. This free diploma course will be of great interest to learners who wish to gain employment or start a career in the sales sector, as well as professionals working in sales and entrepreneurs interested in starting a business.<br />

The free online course Diploma in Services Management introduces the topic of managing business services, how to make business services more effective and efficient, how businesses can achieve excellence in customer relationships by designing and developing effective and efficient service processes for their customers. The course begins by introducing you to the topic of service management and the elements of service management such as how best to serve customers in the modern business environment, what the product service systems are, what the service act comprises of, and how to ensure seamless service to customers both within and outside an organisation. You will then learn how businesses can use marketing elements to shape demand patterns for a service. You will learn about consumer behaviour and how important elements of service processes such as queuing and waiting lines can be re-designed to greatly improve customer experience and also increase service productivity and efficiency. You will learn how to develop an effective positioning strategy for a business service and how to use positioning maps to analyze competitive strategy. You will then learn about branding and what is meant by a 'brand'. You will learn about the key features of a successful brand and how they can be applied to a business service. You will examine the various components of strategic thinking and how to develop and implement a strategic plan. The course then introduces you to the dimensions of service quality and the elements of customer satisfaction. You will learn how to classify quality and customer satisfaction under the headings of 'hard', 'soft' and 'outcome' quality. You will learn about the benefits of implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and how to develop an effective CRM strategy to improve service quality. Finally, the course describes the service innovation process and how building quality into services improves their efficiency and effectiveness. This course will be of great interest to all business service professionals and business owners that offer services to customers and who would like to learn more about managing and improving business services.<br />

The Diploma in Six Sigma is free and online. It is a Six Sigma quality management training course that describes a set of techniques and tools which seek to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified value targets, for example: reduce process cycle time, reduce pollution, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits. In this free online Diploma course the learner will be introduced to important Six Sigma concepts such as using control charts, Design of Experiments and Taguchi methods which are very important tools used in Statistical Process Control (SPC); Benchmarking which is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests or best practices from other industries; How Six Sigma processes are powerful tools that managers can use to identify and solve supply chain problems. This free online Six Sigma training course will be of great interest to all professionals who work in the areas of Six Sigma, Quality Management and manufacturing who would like to learn more about the techniques and tools used in Six Sigma projects. It will also be of great interest to all learners who would like a career in the area of Six Sigma and quality control.

The importance of social media marketing for businesses and organizations is no longer questioned. It has become a worldwide trend in which helps businesses and organizations connect with their customers online. <br /><br />ALISON's free, online social media courses cover the concepts and application of social media marketing and will equip you with the skills to plan and implement a successful social media marketing strategy while offering you social media certification.<br /><br />Social media marketing course topics include the use of email marketing, affiliate marketing, using social media tools such as Twitter, podcasting and blogging, and how to use Facebook to create a business page and get it noticed by current and potential customers.<br /><br />This free online course will be of interest to people who wish to learn more about social media marketing or to advance their career prospects in the social media marketing arena while obtaining social media certification. <br />

Social workers are committed professionals who work in partnership with individuals, families and groups experiencing marginalization, disadvantage or social difficulties. This course will give you a thorough knowledge and understanding of what social work is, the skills needed to be a social worker, and what social workers do.<br /><br />There are also video and audio based case studies which will help you further enhance your understanding during this social work online course.<br /><br />ALISON's free Diploma in Social Work Studies online course is ideal for professionals who are already in a health-related or care-giving occupation and who want to learn more about social work, and for learners who are interested in social work as a career.<br />

The free online course Diploma in Sociology introduces you to societies and their structure, how cultures evolve and what social processes cause them to change. The course begins with an explanation of what sociology is and gives an overview of the three main theories in sociology. You will learn how culture is defined, what differentiates one culture from another and what is common to all cultures. You will then be introduced to inequalities in society and how these inequalities have come to cause social stratification in countries across the world. Next you will explore sociological factors that affect race, ethnicity and minorities as well as gender and gender identity, and the range of prejudices and discrimination that occur in these areas and why they persist. You will learn how sociology defines family, the variation in family structures and you will explore the social impact of changing family structures. The course then reviews the role of religion in society and how it has brought about social change. The world of work and the economy are explored with a focus on capitalism and socialism, both in theory and practice. You will get an understanding of how society changes through social movements and how sociology defines deviance or non-conformity. You will explore how new technologies impact society globally, particularly the divide between those who have early access to new technology and those who don't. You will look at the changing role of the elderly in society and the impact it has on their lives. You will also learn about crowds and collective behaviour along with the emerging norms in a society. Finally, you will look at how sociological research is carried out using different research methods and techniques. This free Diploma course will be of great interest to professionals working in areas as diverse as medicine, politics, law, urban organization and marketing. It will also be of great interest to all learners who would like to know more about how cultures and societies evolve and change.<br />

In this free online course Diploma in Software Testing you will learn about strategies that are used for testing software. You will learn about the verification and validation processes of testing and the difference between the two. You will learn about the different levels of testing. You will learn about system testing and its categories and strategies. You will learn about integration testing, when it is applied and how it works. You will learn about the difference in testing an Object-orientated program compared to the traditional procedural program.<br /><br />The course begins by introducing you to software testing concepts. You will learn about the effort involved in testing and where during the software development life cycle testing starts. You will learn about the verification and validation processes of testing, and about the different testing levels and what the different levels test. You will learn about the pesticide effect for software testing, and the software development life cycle V model, and its strengths and weaknesses. You will learn about the fault model and how it outlines the types of faults in a program. You will learn about test cases, design &amp; planning and strategies for test cases. You will learn about unit testing, what it is and what parts of the program it tests.<br /><br />Next, you will learn about Black box testing strategies. You will learn about equivalence class testing and how it works. You will also learn about special value testing, combinatorial testing, decision table-based testing, and pair-wise or all-pairs testing methods. <br /><br />You will learn about different white-box strategies. You will learn about coverage based testing techniques and which is the strongest and weakest of these techniques. You will learn about the Modified condition and decision coverage testing also known as MC/DC testing. You will learn about path testing and about creating control flow graphs. You will learn about dataflow testing to test variables in your program. You will learn about introducing faults into a program for mutation testing. You will learn about how mutation testing works, its drawbacks and terminology. You will learn about integration testing, what it is and different approaches to this type of testing. <br /><br />Finally, you will be introduced to the levels of testing above unit testing. You will learn about different types of system performance testing methods and how they work. You will learn about regression testing, when it is performed and why. You will learn about testing Object-Orientated programs and features of OO programming such as inheritance and polymorphism. You will learn why some testing methods for procedural programs will not work with OO programs. You will also learn about the different integration testing strategies for testing you OO program.<br /><br />This course will be of great interest to any programmer who wishes to learn about testing methods that can be used to test software programs they have written. <br /><br />