Online courses directory (801)

Many non-native English speakers find when they study the English language that there is quite a leap from basic informal conversational English to more formal business-like English. The use of colloquial expressions by native English speakers can also be quite confusing to the non-native speaker. In this free online course you will study comparisons between informal and formal uses of greetings, introductions, offers, expressions of gratitude and apologies. You will learn how to recognise the differences between these so that you will be able to decipher what exactly is being communicated. You will practise examples to further increase your knowledge and understanding of the English language. This free English Grammar course will be of great interest to all learners who want to go beyond a basic level of spoken and written English and take their knowledge and understanding to a higher level.<br />

<p><strong></strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This free online course is all about healthy living. It is intended to make you more aware of what you eat and drink. This course will show you how to exercise and create a balanced diet that can help you to stay fit and healthy. It will help you to follow a healthy lifestyle by choosing foods that are appropriate for you and this will help you to plan your exercise regime. It will also explain calories and food energy. It will make you think about the dangers of alcohol. This course will help you to understand food labels and help you put healthy eating into practice.</span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><br /></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Note</span>: This course has been optimised for Internet Explorer, some features may not function or display correctly in other Web browsers such as Firefox. </p> <p></p>

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 />

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 />

Microsoft Access 2010 is a software program used to build and run databases. You do not need any prior experience working with Access to follow this free course, but if you are familiar with previous versions, then this course will help you quickly make the transition to this upgraded version. In this course you will learn how to design and create tables for a new database. You will learn how to construct these tables in the database and link them with primary key fields. You will be shown how to create the relationships between the tables and how to extract information from them using queries. This free MS Access course will also review keyboard shortcuts which help you work faster by relying more on the keyboard. Databases created with Access can also be viewed and edited online by uploading them to SharePoint and this course will take you step-by-step through this process. Microsoft implements some safety precautions when you work with online files, and this course will show you how to activate your content after you download it. This course will be of great interest to all business, finance and IT professionals who create and work with databases. You will see how creating a database makes handling data much easier and you will be able to maximise the functionality of the data and reduce data redundancy. <br />

This free online course uses the Web-based e-mail service from Google™ called Gmail™, (Google Mail in the UK and Germany), to introduce you to the basics of e-mail in general, and how to use Gmail, specifically. Gmail is Web-based e-mail service, and is not dependent on your using email software loaded on your own personal computer, like for Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. When using Gmail and other Web-based e-mail platforms, you can access your e-mail from any Internet-connected computer in the world. This free e-learning course shows you how to create Gmail accounts, get an e-mail address, and organize your Gmail account. <br />

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.

Alcohol is enjoyed by many people during social occasions, but for others addiction to alcohol or alcohol-related illnesses can be a serious health issue. This free online course begins by reviewing the biological effects of alcohol on the body, including hangovers, psychological, and physical disturbances. The course also looks at the effects of chronic alcoholism such as liver damage or fetal alcohol syndrome. Finally, the course reviews some of the treatments for alcohol-related illnesses. This course is ideal for anyone who wants to learn more about the effects alcohol can have on their health, or for learners already working in the areas of health promotion or health awareness who want to further their knowledge and understanding of the health effects of excess alcohol consumption.

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 />

When learning a new language an important first step is to learn the rules of grammar that allow people express what they want to say and understand what others are saying in a coherent manner. An equally important second step is to practise using the rules of grammar to become proficient in communicating in the language. In this free online English language course you will get to practise using important rules of grammar that will greatly improve your ability to communicate in both spoken and written English. You will practise the use of tenses such as the present continuous, past perfect, past simple, present perfect continuous and past perfect continuous to improve your ability to communicate. You will also practise and learn how to use superlatives and comparatives, and practise using reported speech. This free online English language course will be of great interest to all learners who have studied previous English language courses on ALISON such as 'Fundamentals of English Grammar' and 'Introduction to Conversational English', and who now want to further practise and improve their ability to communicate confidently in English.<br />

This free online course was developed in response to the emerging importance of children and youth in international development policy. The course will give the learner a comprehensive understanding and knowledge of development from the early years right through to adolescence. The course will deal with questions such as: What makes young people tick? What shapes and influences a child's development? How can the adults who work with children support them more effectively? After completion of the course, learners will be familiar with the major theories on the development of children. This course will be of great interest to professionals already in health, care or development professions, to learners who are planning a career that centres on youth, and will also be beneficial to parents, carers, and learners who are interested in studying issues related to children and adolescents.<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 />

The human body cannot generate energy itself and so must obtain it from external sources. Energy from the sun is captured by plants, which in turn are eaten by animals. We humans use these plants and animals as food sources but, in order to obtain the energy we require from them, our food must be broken down into smaller molecules that the body can process. This is accomplished by a complex series of organs known as the digestive system. This free online human physiology course provides a clear introduction to the human digestive system. In this course you will learn how energy is obtained from food and be introduced to the different food types and vitamins. The course looks at the stages involved in ingestion and swallowing, describing how the stomach is designed for food storage and the initial processing of food. How the small and large intestines are structured to facilitate the digestion and absorption of nutrients is also examined. The course also provides an overview of the elimination of the waste products of digestion from the body. It outlines the special roles played by the liver and pancreas in the secretion of digestive enzymes. The mechanisms used by the digestive system to protect the body from infection are covered. This includes looking at the tonsils and other lymphoid tissue in the small and large intestine and explaining how the mammary gland protects the breastfeeding baby from infection. This free online human physiology course will be of great interest to healthcare professionals who would like a greater understanding of the human digestive system and its importance in human physiology, and to students of biology, medicine and nursing who would like to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of the structure and function of the human digestive system. <br />

Christine Benninger was president of the Humane Society Silicon Valley (HSSV) for 17 years. HSSV is an independent, non-profit animal shelter that provides high-quality adoptions, medical services, education programs and pet care services in Santa Clara County, California. When she joined the organisation it was in a dire state and this led to her quickly implementing a six-month plan to keep the organisation afloat. In this free online course she talks about fundraising which is a crucial component of a non-profit enterprise’s success. She also discusses how to find the right people, how to separate what she calls the missionaries from the mercenaries and how to deal with the overly passionate. She points out that it is important to find talented people who are both mission-driven and also able to work as part of a team. This course will be of great interest to social entrepreneurs and business people who would like to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of running a social enterprise from an experienced and practiced social entrepreneur.<br />

Sustainable development is a type of economic growth pattern where the use of resources meets the needs of the human population while conserving the environment at the same time. Sustainable development means resources are used in such a way that both current and future human needs can be met. This free online Diploma in Sustainable Development reviews a diverse range of topics including what exactly sustainability is and what systems of practice are most commonly used, and in particular, examines the importance of sustainable development in counteracting global climate change. Two very important issues in sustainable development are energy sources that meet current and future demands, and water conservation. The course reviews both non-renewable and renewable energy sources and examines how current and future demands for energy can be met for a growing global population. Water is a vital resource for all countries and the course reviews how supply and demand for water by industry, agriculture and people can be met. This course will be of great interest to all professionals interested in international development, and in the sustainability and environmental sectors who would like to learn more about global sustainable development. It will also be of interest to the general learner who is interested in how current and future demands for the earth's resources by a growing human population can be met.<br />

SnagIt is a piece of software that can be used for image and online video capture from your PC or laptop. To use SnagIt just select an area of the screen, take a snapshot of it or record a video, then you can edit and add effects to it. You can also upload the image or video to the cloud. In this free online course with SnagIt tutorials, you will be shown how to do both image and video screen capture and you will then learn what to do with the image and video files in SnagIt. You will be shown how to sort, export, share and embed these files. You will see why SnagIt is a great tool for recording screen activity to create software demonstrations and presentations. The more you use SnagIt, the more ways you’ll find to use it. This SnagIt tutorial course will be of great interest to teachers and trainers who want to show people how to perform an action on a computer such as how to use a piece of software and it is also useful for capturing a view of something on the computer such as a part of a website for adding to demonstrations.<br />

This free online course will introduce Transition Year (TY) and Senior Cycle (SC) students to the principles of workplace safety, health and welfare. It aims to prepare young people for the world of work. This course forms part of the HSA, National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NCCA) approved, Transition Unit programme.<br />

This free online course in Pre-Algebra mathematics for high school students will guide you through several different areas of mathematics such as integers, one-step equations, inequalities and equations, graphs and functions, percent, probabilities. There is also an introduction into geometry and right triangles. The course is divided into twelve modules and each module is divided into several lessons. Under each lesson you will find theory, examples and video lessons. This course is ideal for learners who want to gain a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of topics in pre-algebra which they can build on in later courses.

This module explains the Safety Management Pack for construction contractors with 20 or less employees (SMP 20). SMP20 will help you to plan your work in a safe way and protect your employees and the people around you. By following the simple steps outlined in this module, you can develop your own safety statement and improve how you carry out your work. A detailed look at risk assessment is also provided. This module was developed by the Construction Safety Partnership to help you, and will take approximately 45 minutes to complete. Afterwards you will be given instructions how to purchase your copy of SMP20 from the Construction Safety Partnership.

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 />