Online courses directory (19947)

Personal financial debt can be a source of great anxiety and worry for many people, and it can be difficult to know where to start when you want to take control of your financial debts. This free online course helps you get started on the road to reducing your personal financial debts and becoming debt free. The course offers you a clear way of understanding exactly how much money you owe and to whom by setting up a debt spreadsheet, how to contact credit card companies to request a break on interest rates, how to prioritise which debt to pay off first, what strategy you should use to pay off debts based on minimum monthly payments or highest interest rates charged, and how to implement an emergency debt elimination plan if needed. This course will be of great interest to personal finance professionals who work with people who find themselves in financial difficulty and to anyone who wants clear guidance on how to reduce their personal financial debts and become debt free.<br />

Google Analytics is a free software application available from Google that helps run websites more effectively and efficiently. It shows how visitors find and use websites so that informed website design and content decisions can be made. It can improve website performance to convert more site visitors into customers, track the performance of keywords, banner ads and other marketing campaigns, and track metrics such as revenue, average order value and e-commerce conversion rates. This free online course will help with training for the Google Analytics Individual Qualification test. The course covers topics such as installing the Google Analytics tracking code, analysing traffic sources, implementing campaign tracking and AdWords integration, e-commerce tracking, internal site searching and other topics. This course will be of great interest to learners who are preparing for the Google Analytics Individual Qualification test, and to IT professionals and business professionals who are interested in using the power of Google Analytics to greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of websites.<br />

Microsoft Excel 2010 is one of the most popular software applications worldwide and is part of the Microsoft Office 2010 productivity suite. This free online course will help you switch to Excel 2010 from a previous version of the software, and will give you a thorough knowledge and understanding of Excel and its applications if you have never used it before. You can use Excel to analyse data, for example, in accounts, budgets, billing and many other areas. You learn how to navigate this revised version of Excel, exploring the menu bar and the different tasks that can be done with it. You will work on sample spreadsheets doing basic math, adding and deleting columns and rows, and preparing the worksheet for printing. You will learn how to represent your data visually to show trends, patterns and comparisons between the data in a chart, table or other template, and how Excel 2010 will automatically do all the calculations for you once you add in the formula. This course will be of great interest to all professionals in business, finance and many other areas that need to analyse data in accounts, or keep records of stock or schedules, and to anyone trying to keep track of their personal finances at home.<br />

The word 'Incoterms' is derived from International Commercial terms, which are a series of three-letter terms related to common sales practices published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The main aim of Incoterms is to define the tasks, costs and risks associated with the transportation and delivery of products and goods. This free online course has been created by Procurement Academy, an institute dedicated to training procurement professionals. In this course you will learn about Incoterms, their definitions and classification, and their use by procurement professionals. You will also learn about the role of the buyer during the supplier selection process. This course will be of interest to procurement professionals who would like to learn more about Incoterms and their use in the procurement process.<br />

Growing your own organic food in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner is becoming a very popular activity. However, many people hesitate at growing vegetables as they are uncertain how they should start and of the kind of work that is needed. This free online organic food course will introduce you to all aspects of growing garden vegetables in an organic and sustainable manner. The course will give you a thorough knowledge and understanding of how to grow a large variety of vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, leeks and many others. You will also learn about maintaining your garden vegetable plot, how to test and improve soil, make compost, create a raised bed, sow seeds and implement crop rotation. This free online organic food course will be of great interest to all learners who would like to grow their own food in an organic and sustainable manner but would like to follow the advice and guidance of organic experts.<br />

This course is presented by professional marketer Kate Rodan, co-founder of Proactive Solution, a health-science company dedicated to researching and developing products for dermatological and skincare problems. In this free online course, she talks about how the company strategically goes about researching and developing new products. The example for the course is researching a market need for dermatological problems such as skin acne that are not being met by existing products. Kate discusses the value of effective market research and the benefits of using market research techniques such as customer surveys. She demonstrates how infomercials were very successful as a marketing tool in reaching her company’s target audience and how infomercials helped educate their target audience about their skin problems, and opened up new business opportunities for the company. This course will be of great interest to business professionals and entrepreneurs interested in learning more about using marketing techniques to reach targeted audiences, and how to create new business opportunities by reacting to what your customers are saying. At the end of the day, they are the very best advisors.<br />

Donna Novitsky has many years of experience as both an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She is CEO of Big Tent Design and was formerly venture capitalist at Mohr Davidow Ventures. Her motto is “Go big or don’t go!” and this has driven her work as both entrepreneur and venture capitalist. In this course, you can listen to Donna Novitsky as she explains why entrepreneurs should think big when they are investing so much of their time, energy and passion into creating a business. She also explains how to differentiate between the roles of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in areas such as business strategy and execution, technology and team building, business diversity and singular focus. You will also learn about the importance of teamwork as nobody can do it all alone, and she also has advice and guidance in terms of naming a company and marketing start-up companies. This course will be of great interest to business professionals who are starting their own businesses, particularly high-potential start-ups in the technology space, and would like to benefit from Donna’s advice and guidance on thinking big and achieving extraordinary personal success in business.<br />

Microsoft Word is one of the world’s most popular software applications. Although first released decades ago, the number of feature sets, ease of use, and the overall power of this productivity tool has continued to increase. This free online course will assist Microsoft Word users to make the switch from earlier versions of Word to the more advanced 2010 version. Word 2010 allows for more customization of the work space and creates an easier work flow when creating more complex documents. This course will introduce all the new aspects of Word 2010 including the new Backstage view, the Navigation Pane, the customizable Ribbon, formatting text and images together, live collaboration, saving your document to the cloud, and much more. This course will be of great interest to all Microsoft Word users who wish to increase productivity and enhance their document presentation without increasing their work load. For those who happily use older versions of Microsoft Word, particularly 2003 and 2007 versions, the new feature sets of Microsoft Word 2010 will be a revelation. You will get an excellent return of your time and energy by spending time updating your word processing skills via this free online course. For those of you who have completed ABC IT, our comprehensive introductory computer course, the MS 2010 Word course is the perfect next step.<br />

Many people would like to know how to go about valuing stocks and shares and investing in the stock market but the terminology and concepts can be confusing and intimidating. This free online course is an introduction to valuation and investing and aims to take the fear-factor out of stocks and shares by explaining the concepts behind valuing and investing in a clear and simple manner. The course covers concepts such as Income Statements, Return On Assets (ROA), Return On Equity (ROE), Price-to-Earnings ratio, depreciation, amortization and many others. This course will be of great interest to business and finance professionals who would like to learn more about, or refresh their knowledge of, valuing and investing in stocks and shares, and to learners who would like to know more about the concepts and strategies behind investing. Please note that while this free course will teach you about making investments in stocks and shares in general, it does not advocate that you should buy stocks and shares or invest in the stock market, and that any investment made in the stock market may lose money. <br />

Buying a house is the largest financial investment decision most people will make in their lives, and can be a source of great stress and anxiety for buyers. Many people would benefit from the advice and guidance of financial experts when purchasing a house but cannot afford it. This free online course about negotiating techniques for house buyers has been developed by Procurement Academy, a training institute dedicated to the development and training of procurement professionals. This course will give you a thorough knowledge and understanding of how to negotiate the price when buying a house directly from the seller or from a professional estate agent. You will follow the example of a couple who want to buy a house and learn from their example to avoid expensive mistakes. This course will be of great interest to anyone who is planning to or is in the process of buying a house, and also to procurement professionals who will learn tips and techniques related to negotiating skills when buying a house. Even if you have bought and live securely and happily in your home and you have no notion of moving, help your neighbours, friends, work colleagues and family to make the best deal possible when purchasing their home by telling them about this course. <br />

Computer programming skills are now becoming part of basic education as these skills are increasingly of vital importance for future job and career prospects. This free online course introduces you to the core components of programming using the Python programming language which is one of the most popular programming languages worldwide. The course shows you how to use the free open-source PyScripter IDE for Python to write basic programs using concepts such as functions, variables, If Else statements, For loops, While loops, iterative and recursive programs and algorithms such as the Insertion Sort algorithm. This course will be of great interest to all learners who would like to gain a thorough knowledge and understanding of the basic components of computer programming using the Python language – and might be a gentle introduction to programming for those who think they might have a longer term interest in the subject area. <br />

With the wide-spread use of the Internet copyright has become a very important issue for publishers of books, music, software, films, television programmes and many other industries. This free online course is an introduction to copyright law as practised in the United States, however, the principles and concepts will be of interest to legal professionals in other jurisdictions. The course reviews the structure of copyright under federal law, the basics of legal research and legal citations. It examines copyright and its applications in the music and broadcasting industries, and looks at legal cases involving examples such as Napster, Grokster and peer-to-peer file sharing services. It also reviews software licensing, and the General Public License and free software. This course will be of great interest to legal and business professionals who would like to learn more about copyright law and how it is practised in the United States, and to students who are pursuing a career in the legal professions and would like to learn more about this very important legal topic.<br />

<p>ALISON’S free course - Introduction to Banking - will prove useful to business and finance professionals, as well as anyone who would like to learn more about banking and how the global financial system operates. </p><br /> <p>Most large banks are now global in nature, with offices in all key financial centres, from New York to London to Hong Kong, and have the power to influence the economies of countries around the world no matter how large, as seen during the recent financial crisis. This course reviews the banking system, basic banking practices, and explains - at an introductory level - how international banking works as well as examining topics such as fractional reserve banking, reserve ratios, treasuries, leveraging, the Fed funds rates, and the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR). </p>

Following the recent global financial crisis there has been a huge increase in people seeking to learn about how economies and modern economic systems work. People now realise that economic decisions taken in one country can dramatically affect the economies of other countries around the world. This free online course examines in detail economic concepts and principles such as Capacity Utilization Rate, Return on Assets, Gross profits, Cost of Goods Sold, Earnings Before Interest and Taxes, Breakeven point, Aggregate Capacity, Aggregate Demand, and Aggregate Utilization. The course also looks at the rise of the Chinese economy and how it affects the economy of a country like America, for example, in terms of China buying US government bonds and in relation to the Chinese-US balance of payments. The course will be of great interest to finance and business professionals who would like to gain a deeper understanding of modern economic concepts and principles, and to anyone who would like to learn more about how the economies of the world are interrelated. <br />

Tien Tzuo is Chief Strategy Officer with Salesforce.com, and in this free online course he discusses why businesses must move their marketing strategy away from direct-marketing campaigns to online marketing. For online marketing to work he explains why businesses must understand how the 21st century customer learns about new products or services online through online buzz, online PR, and online dialogues. He explains that when designing a complex product, a business should create a layered product that allow customers choose how complex the functionality of the product should be, and that in the modern marketplace businesses must serve the customer by providing a free trial of the product. Businesses must also provide a post-sales service to customers. This course will be of interest to business professionals who would like to learn what practices a business should implement so that it can better understand its customers to drive sales of its products or services. It is also a useful course for any entrepreneur seeking to develop an online business.<br />

Janice Fraser is CEO and co-founder of Adaptive Path, an experience design consultancy firm based in San Francisco, California and Austin, Texas. Janice is an experienced entrepreneur and in this free online course she talks in detail about how important the culture of a business is for the success of that business. She emphasises that a productive culture is one where managers create meaning for their employees. By promoting a business culture that employees can buy into they will become more motivated and work more passionately to make the business a success. Janice believes that alignment is the key factor underlying everything we do. In a business alignment means that employees are doing fulfilling work which they excel at. This course will be of great interest to all business professionals and managers who would like to gain advice and guidance about creating a successful business culture which has meaning for all employees.<br />

The Irish (or Gaelic) language is the official language of Ireland and is also recognised as a working language by the European Union. This free online course will introduce you to the Irish language and Irish language pronunciation skills and basic everyday vocabulary. You will learn how to pronounce words related to people, clothes, food, travel, directions, eating out, the body, places, numbers, colours, dates and times, as well as other general phrases. This free Irish language course will be of interest to all learners who would like to discover more about the Irish language and Irish Culture.<br />

Product design is the process whereby product designers conceptualize and evaluate ideas before turning them into products ready to be sold by a business to its customers. This free online course introduces the principles and concepts of product design. You will learn about heuristic problem-solving, the usefulness of design models, taking the design from concept to prototype, and understanding the product design specification. The free course also looks at case studies in design and innovation. It will be of great interest to design and business professionals who would like to learn more about product design and its role in business development, and to learners who are interested in how products are designed. As new technologies emerge that give more and more people access to capability within the area of product design, understanding the basic theory of product design might be a great first step to an interesting new career!<br />

The aim of healthcare policy is to ensure that people are taken care of when they are ill or injured. How healthcare is administered in different countries varies depending on the number and quality of hospitals, doctors and medical equipment available. Budgets for drug development and the role of insurance companies in paying and administering care for patients are also of importance. This free online course gives an overview of healthcare policy in the US and how its healthcare system is managed. This free healthcare course reviews costs in the US compared to Europe and how doctors are paid in the US. It also gives an overview of drugs costs, and explains the role of Blue Cross Blue Shield and how it was established. This course will be of interest to medical and healthcare professionals who would like to learn more about healthcare policies in the US, and to anyone who would like to know how the US healthcare system works. If you are interested in a career in healthcare, your boss or future employer might be very impressed that your knowledge extends not only from day-to-day healthcare but also to an overall policy level!<br />

eBay is now a household name as during the past decade it has become the world’s leading online marketplace. eBay allows anyone sit in their living room and buy and sell for their pleasure or as a business. In this free online course we get an insight into the workings of how eBay was born as a company, how they managed the creative processes as well as their marketing strategies. Along with eBay there is also a discussion about PayPal, created by the team at eBay to function as their payment scheme for customers but which is now the world’s leading online payments company. The course also reviews their acquisitions projects, the successes and failures experienced by the company, potential growth sectors and the future of eBay and PayPal. This course will be of great interest to all business and marketing professionals, and budding entrepreneurs who would like learn how a world-class company like eBay grew and prospered.<br />