Online courses directory (10358)

Dyslexia is a condition affecting literacy skills. It is not caused by problems with vision, rather, it is a developmental reading disorder that occurs when the brain does not properly recognise and process certain symbols. This free online dyslexia course analyses how our image of normality affects the way we as a society define conditions such as dyslexia. You will learn how important it is to integrate the different psychological accounts of dyslexia in order to provide a full explanation of potential causes and strategies for remediation. The course presents dyslexia as a ‘case study’ in how different perspectives might be complementary to each other and outlines different approaches to the definition of ‘abnormality’. You will learn about the different explanations of dyslexia including behavioural, cognitive, and biological perspectives. The course also considers the more practical issue of how to approach the treatment of dyslexia and associated difficulties. This free online dyslexia course will be of great interest to all professionals in the areas of education, child development, and adult literacy who would like to learn more about the causes of and treatment for dyslexia, and to all learners who would like a greater understanding of this common condition.<br />

This course will take a non-technical approach to understanding how governments influence the macroeconomy. Topics will include fiscal policy, deficits and debts, monetary policy and structural reform. We will review some current debates, such as fiscal stimulus vs. austerity and rules vs. quantitative easing.

This course offers you the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the life and work of the young Albert Einstein and especially his mind-bending special theory of relativity.

Learn about the European Union, how it works, why it matters and what it can offer you! Regardless of where you live, the EU not only affects your life but may also transform it. This course aims at empowering you, your family, business and community in Europe and beyond and will enable you to discover jobs and paths you were not aware of. Des sous-titres sont proposés en français.

Put options and Call options are widely used financial contracts by investors and are part of very important financial trading methods that keep the financial markets running. In this free online course you will learn more about the role of put and call options as financial contracts, what the difference between American and European options are, what going short and going long on investments mean, how to balance investment risks by taking a long straddle and how to use payoff diagrams to read the outcomes of put and call options. This course will be of great interest to finance and business professionals who would like to learn more about put and call options and how they are used as financial contracts, and to all learners who would like a greater understanding of important financial trading methods.<br />

Fixed cost, variable cost and marginal cost are very important concepts to understand in economics. Fixed costs are business expenses and are often time-related such as salaries and rents which are paid on a monthly basis. Variable costs are expenses related to business activity and change in proportion to an increase or decrease in this activity. Marginal cost is the change in total cost that arises when the quantity of goods produced increases by one unit. It is a measure of the cost of producing one additional unit. This free online economics course explains in a simple and clear manner the concepts behind fixed, variable and marginal costs using worked examples. The relationship between marginal cost, average total cost and marginal revenue is also outlined. By studying this course the learner will appreciate the importance of these costs in economics, and why and how they are calculated. This free online economics course will be of great interest to all professionals in economics, finance and business who would like a greater knowledge and understanding of fixed, variable and marginal costs, and to all learners who would like a greater insight into the factors that determine these key costs in economics.<br />

Learn what hashtags are, how they are used and how they can benefit your conversations on social media networks.

Control of information within an organization is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of managers. Modern businesses and organisations must be capable of creating and implementing a control structure which will suit the operations of the business. Information technology (IT) can be used to create information systems which result in effective and efficient control in a business. In this free online course the learner is introduced to the issues that control presents in the organization and also outlines the impact globalization has on control within the organization. Information systems can greatly aid communications in an organization but they may also pose a major control problem for management in terms of development, implementation and security. The learner will also see how different types of organizations may require different levels of control. Improved information systems have allowed many businesses to expand their operations to the global market, in turn creating more control issues, for example, businesses with extensive outsourcing face problems of control and communications. This free course will be of great interest to professionals in the areas of business management, IT and information systems who would like to learn more about implementing effective control measures within organisations and the impact globalization can have on control within a business.<br />

Information has always been with us but with the advent of electrical and digital communication systems, and in particular the Internet, the quantity of information being generated has increased exponentially. This free online course is an introduction to information theory and where our ideas about information first started. It reviews ancient forms of information from cave art up to clay writing tables. It also reviews how the development of electrical communication systems revolutionised the transmission of information. This free online course will be of great interest to all IT and communication professionals who are involved in the area of digital communications, and to all students who would like to increase their knowledge and understanding of how the science of information theory.<br />

This Islamic finance and banking course gives an overview of the basics of Islamic insurance, mutual and investment funds. In this course, you will learn about The Concept of Takaful Ta’awuni (collaborative), The Basis for Takaful, Takaful vs Conventional Insurance, The Tabarru or donation - based Takaful Model.

You will also learn about Islamic Perspectives on Mutual Funds and Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and Islamic Investment Funds.

No previous knowledge is needed.

Why Islamic finance is important for the global financial industry

Islamic finance has grown rapidly, with the trend expecting to continue. Although the concept has been around for much longer, Islamic finance only attained a formal status in Muslim-majority countries in the 1970s. Today, it has become a global phenomenon, eliciting increasing interest around the world, including from non-Muslim countries like the United Kingdom, Luxemburg, Kenya, South Africa, and Hong Kong. Islamic finance has grown into a huge industry with total worldwide assets estimated at about US$2 trillion.

Islamic finance has the potential to contribute to higher and more inclusive economic growth by increasing access of banking services to underserved populations. In addition, it has the potential to promote financial stability due to its risk-sharing feature and its financing being asset-backed and thus fully collateralized. Moreover, Islamic banks offer profit-sharing and loss-bearing accounts that can help mitigate losses and contagion in the event of banking sector distress. These are all indications that Islamic finance is converging to the global finance industry and hence all international finance professionals should be aware of Islamic finance.

Learn about different types of loans, their features and associated costs. This will help you make better loan choices.

Few people who “just Google it” to find an answer to their every question understand just what the company does (and why). Through this course, you'll join the minority that really gets it.

Media and news influence every aspect of our lives: where we live, what we buy, what we think, and what we believe. We encounter and consume media and news messages every day—but do we understand the meaning behind those messages?

A proper understanding of modern military operations requires a prior understanding of both the material side of war, and the human or organizational side of war. This seminar will break apart selected past, current, and future sea, air, space, and land battlefields into their constituent parts and look at the interaction in each of those warfare areas between existing military doctrine and weapons, sensors, communications, and information processing technologies. It will specifically seek to explore how technological development, whether innovative or stagnant, is influenced in each warfare area by military doctrine.

Gain high-level perspective on the world of business and organisations today in preparation for a better understanding of tomorrow

A monopoly exists when one particular business is the only supplier of a commodity or service within any particular sector of the economy. This is a very important concept to understand as to monopolize a market means that a business has significant market power and can charge higher prices. In this free online economics course you will learn about the characteristics of a monopoly, when monopolies might occur, and the economic and financial implications of a business having a monopoly in a particular commodity or service sector. You will learn how monopolies optimize prices. Concepts such as total revenue, marginal revenue, and dead weight loss are clearly explained. Monopolies are also contrasted with oligopolies where a market or industry is dominated by a small number of businesses and where the decisions of one business influence the decisions made by the other businesses. This free online economics course will be of great interest to all professionals in areas such as economics, finance, business and politics who would like to learn more about the economic and financial implications of monopolies existing within any business sector, and to all learners who would like learn more about how monopolies operate within a market.<br />

Taking out a mortgage for a house or property is the biggest financial commitment most people make in their lives. Because of this it is of vital importance that people understand the financial concepts behind mortgages and home equity. In this free online course you will learn about the concepts of assets, liabilities and equity in relation to obtaining a mortgage from a financial institution to purchase a house. You will also learn how to calculate the monthly interest repayments for a mortgage. This course will be of great interest to all learners who are considering purchasing a house or property and who would like to learn more about the financial concepts behind mortgages and home equity.<br />

In this nuclear energy course, we will tackle provocative questions such as:

• Is nuclear energy a good substitute for fossil fuels to reduce our CO2 emission or not?
• Can nuclear reactors operate safely without any harm to the public and environment?
• How much nuclear waste is produced and how long does it need to be stored safely?
• How can we make nuclear energy clean and more sustainable?
• How much are nuclear energy costs?

You will learn the physics behind nuclear science, how to gain energy from nuclear fission, how nuclear reactors operate safely, and the life cycle of nuclear fuel: from mining to disposal. In the last part of the course, we will focus on what matters most in the public debate: the economic and social impact of nuclear energy but also the future of energy systems.

Practically, we will:

• Teach you about nuclear science and technology (radiation and radioactivity, nuclear reactions, nuclear reactors and fuel cycle, economics of nuclear energy, and the sociality aspects)
• Show you short videos about the theory and practical implementation of nuclear energy
• Stimulate discussion and debate about nuclear energy
• Ask you to formulate your own opinion about nuclear energy and its role in society

The GENTLE consortium has sponsored and prepared this course. GENTLE is focused on maintaining the current high level of nuclear safety, and developing a highly skilled and well informed nuclear workforce, following the conclusion of the Council of the EU that it “it is essential to maintain in the European Union a high level of training in the nuclear field“ to deal with reactor fleet safely, decommission obsolete plants, be involved in new builds where policy dictates, and deal with the legacy and future radioactive wastes.

LICENSE

The course materials of this course are Copyright Delft University of Technology and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International License.

This free online environmental course explores a number of major global phenomena at play including deforestation, climate change and drought. The course then delves into the socioeconomic consequences of these effects. This free, self-paced online tutorial is an ideal complement to traditional textbook learning. Teachers can treat the course as a resource and assign specific areas to students. The course can also be used as a stand-alone introduction to the various facets of environmental biodiversity and its key political and social corollaries.

Present Value is one of the most widely used concepts in the financial world as its calculation can determine the current worth of a future sum of money or stream of cash flow given a specified rate of return. Determining the appropriate discount rate is the key to properly valuing future cash flows, whether they be earnings coming in or obligations going out. This free online financial economics course reviews what the concept of present value is all about and discusses how to calculate the present value using simple calculations. You will learn why the calculation of present value is extremely important in many financial calculations such as net present value, bond yields, spot rates, and pension obligations. Having completed this free course you will be able to calculate present value to help you decide whether you should accept a cash rebate, 0% financing on the purchase of a car or to pay points on a mortgage. This course will be of interest to professionals in the accounting and financial services sectors, to accounting, finance or economics students, or to the general public who wish to understand the concept of present value and how its calculation can help them with their personal finances.<br />