Online courses directory (801)

This free online Physics course covers electronics, electric systems, magnets, sounds and transformers, and much more. It provides a comprehensive grounding in Physics and is ideal as a complement to regular classes, a study or revision aid, or as a resource for someone pursuing an interest in basic science.

It's easy to use a computer safely and responsibly if you know how. The fourth module of the free online course Microsoft Digital Literacy will help you gain confidence in computing by explaining the risks and threats to computer security and privacy so that you can understand and prevent them.

<p>This free online course offers a comprehensive, no-nonsense guide to economics. Topics include the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services as well as economic growth and activity, employment, the market economy, inflation, wealth, and income distribution. </p> <br /> <p>This course is suitable for people studying business and economics or anybody with an interest in economics and current affairs. </p>

Silicon Valley, just outside San Francisco in the US, is known world-wide to inventors, entrepreneurs and investment bankers looking to make money on their technological products and investment services, and as a result has its own Silicon Valley commercial bank located there. In this free online course Ken Wilcox, CEO of Silicon Valley commercial bank, discusses how he took on the company and overturned its previous mistakes to make it the success it is today. In this course he discusses key values adhered to like maintaining and nurturing culture and strategy, and investing in key people such as accountants, payroll staff and lawyers. We learn how a commercial bank works and also how it can fail. He then reviews how commercial banking can help a technology company start-up or grow such as supplying the core services and investment a new or growing company will need within an environment like Silicon Valley. This course will be of particular interest to entrepreneurs, banking and financial professionals who would like to learn more about how commercial banking can help technology companies start-up and grow through investment and support.<br />

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 />

German is spoken by nearly one hundred million people in central European countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union. Germany is internationally recognised as the industrial and economic powerhouse of Europe, so a working knowledge of German is essential for professionals in areas such as business, finance, economics and politics. In this free online German language course you will be introduced to basic German vocabulary and grammar. You will learn about times of the day, colours, numbers, the alphabet, and important verbs. This free online German language course will be of great interest to all professionals who would like to begin learning German, and to all learners who would like to be introduced to this very important European language.<br />

<p>&quot;Speaking and Writing English Effectively&quot; is designed for proficient English speakers who would like to improve their speaking and writing skills. </p> <br /> <p>The course compares a variety of writing styles including imaginative writing, journalism, English in the media and textual analysis. It also offers a comprehensive guide to using language effectively and is ideal for English students as well as those who want to improve their written English for work or pleasure. </p>

Blogs have become a common and widespread means of communicating on the Web. They allow individuals provide commentary or news on a particular subject, and they can also be used as more personal online diaries. This newly updated blogging course shows you how to create a blog using the popular blog publishing application WordPress. By studying this newly updated course you will be shown how to set up an account on WordPress, review the features on the WordPress dashboard, write and edit entries on your blog, add videos, images and Web links to the blog, and edit and filter pages on the blog. This free blog course is ideal for learners who want to create their own blogs online but lack the skills, knowledge, or confidence to do it.<br />

Twitter is one of the leading social networking sites on the Web. It enables its users to send and read messages called “tweets”. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile page. Users may subscribe to other users' tweets — this is known as “following” and subscribers are known as “followers”. This newly updated course is ideal for learners who want to learn how to set up a Twitter account and use the features of Twitter for social networking and micro-blogging. This free Twitter course has been updated to show you how to get up and running with Twitter, how to build up a social network and get connected with the right people, how to make lists, find out what is trending, what an advanced search is, and how to delete a tweet. You can find the answers to all these questions and more by studying this new updated course on Twitter.<br />

Children from birth to the age of 18 are now considered academically to represent a distinct sociological and cultural class. This means that children are studied as complete individuals in their own right, separate and distinct from adults.<br /><br />ALISON's free online course is multi-disciplinary in nature, covering developmental, psychological, familial and sociological aspects of children's studies. It begins by reviewing the psychological development of children and how they learn, then looks at the role of the family and the place of the child within modern family structures.<br /><br />The sociological aspects of children’s studies review how the modern state looks after the well-being of its children in a modern society.<br /><br />ALISON’S Diploma in Children’s Studies will be of great interest to all professionals who work with children or who are responsible for their well-being, and to learners who would like a career working with children in the health, social or caring professions.<br /><br />It will also be of interest to parents, or those who want to relate, support, encourage and understand their children better.<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 />

Gases behave differently from either solids or liquids, so there are different methods for understanding their behaviour. Having neither fixed volume nor shape gases are moulded entirely by the container in which they are held and from this it is possible to measure their behaviour by measuring properties such as pressure, volume, temperature and number of molecules. This free online chemistry course will introduce the concept of the ideal gas and the ideal gas law which is a good indicator of the behaviour of gases under many different conditions. The various components in the ideal gas law are explained in clear terms and you will see that by using equations you will understand how the impact of a change to one property, for example temperature, will impact on the other properties. Where there are multiple gases in a container you will be shown how to work out their partial pressure relative to the total pressure. This free online chemistry course will be of great interest to all students who wish to pursue a career in any of the sciences such as chemistry, physics, biology or geology, and to the individual learner who simply wants to learn and understand how gases behave.<br />

Using vectors to study motion is a fundamental skill to have when studying physics. Vector quantities used to describe the physical world include displacement, velocity, acceleration, and force. In this free online physics course the standard way to represent vectors and their axes as well as unit vector notation are explained in a clear and step-by-step manner. Examples show how to work out the angle or distance necessary to get the desired displacement. Using two known variables you will learn how to work through the process of calculating the remaining value, such as time in air or horizontal displacement using a variety of techniques. This free online physics course will be of great interest to students who are studying physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and to students who wish to pursue a career in any of the sciences or engineering fields, and even the sportsperson who wants to plan for a specific outcome when hitting a golf ball or batting a ball.<br />

Adobe Photoshop CS6 is the world's most popular graphics and digital photo-editing software program. It is used by millions of graphic designers and photographers. This free online Adobe Photoshop CS6 video tutorial course is the ideal introduction to the skills and techniques needed to master image manipulation and photographic re-touching. The course will guide you through how to use Adobe Photoshop CS6 and its user interface and you will learn in a step-by-step manner how to use the basic essential tools for editing and enhancing your photographs. The course will show you how to remove background elements from the image, re-touch blemishes in the original photograph, crop elements out of the image, insert text onto an image, create marquees around elements to remove or modify them, and free transform a selection that has been cut from an image. This free online Adobe Photoshop CS6 tutorial video-based course is ideal for photographers and graphic designers who would like to learn more about image manipulation using the range of tools found in Adobe Photoshop CS6. It is also ideal for small business owners or home-based entrepreneurs keen to develop their image production skills and build a web presence using content created and produced independently. The Adobe Photoshop CS6 tutorial course can be used alongside ALISON's Graphic Design suite of courses to truly allow you express your creativity.<br />

Note: This is the Arabic version, for English version, <a href="http://alison.com/courses/MSDL-M3">click here</a>.<br /><br />The third module of the free online course Microsoft Digital Literacy describes the common features and commands of different productivity programs. It also explains how to work with various categories of productivity programs, such as word processors, spreadsheets, presentation programs, and database programs.

Starting a new course can be daunting as we can often doubt our ability and skills in learning. Fortunately, learning can be improved by the development of new personal study skills and practices. This free online course gives you the opportunity to understand how to learn effectively, teaches the fundamental skills necessary to improve your learning and performance and helps you to achieve both academic and personal success. The topics covered include key skills in learning, good academic practise and how to find information. You will also focus on developing your reading and thinking skills which are vital in any course of study. This course is ideal for preparing prospective students for life as a student and for life-long learners working in businesses and organisations.

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 />

<p>Manufacturing industries are a vital component of all modern economies and all of them require employees who are skilled - in and knowledgeable about - manufacturing processes. </p> <br /> <p>This Introduction to Manufacturing Processes will give you a detailed understanding of processes such as casting, forming, cutting and joining. It will review aspects of surface and optical materials engineering as well as examine a number of case studies related to these processes. </p> <br /> <p>The course is ideal for employees in manufacturing industries or business, professionals who want to learn more about this type of work, and anyone who might be seeking a job or career in a manufacturing industry. </p>

Heredity is the genetic transmission of characteristics from parent to offspring. Many of these characteristics, particularly the dominant ones, have a physical manifestation like hair colour or colour blindness, but other traits can skip generations until the right combination of genes allows a regressive trait to appear. This free online course about heredity will look at how traits are passed on, why some traits form part of our physical makeup and why we only carry others in our genes but never express them. You will learn how to work out ratios of traits that are present in both the genotype and phenotype using the Punnett Square method and the Hardy-Weinberg Principle. You will also learn how bacteria change their DNA over time and how this impacts on human health. Similarly you will learn how viruses replicate and how they can change human DNA. This free online heredity course will be of great interest to all learners who wish to pursue a career in sciences such as biology, medicine, zoology or botany and to any individual who simply wants to learn more about how traits are inherited and changed.<br />

Most people who learn a second language would like to master enough of that language to be able to engage in basic conversations when meeting people in social settings. This free online English language course will help you improve your social English language skills so that you will be able to communicate confidently with people in social settings. The course starts by showing you how to meet and greet people and how to engage in small talk. You will also learn how to make suggestions, requests, and offers, how to talk about what you do in your spare time, and give opinions on different topics. This free online English language course will give you much greater confidence when communicating with people in social settings and allow you to engage in conversations that are fun and meaningful. This course will be of great interest to all students who have completed the free online course titled 'Introduction to Conversational English' available on ALISON and who would like to further improve their English language skills.<br />