On-line Courses

Dear Kayla,

I have recently been taking some of the new MOOC's (Massive Open Online Courses) and finding them extremely helpful. I have been working to build my academic skills for a while now. I had considerable psychiatric difficulties both in college and in graduate school. While I was able to fix the psychiatric problems, I had missed developing some academic skills. Right now the MOOC's are really helping me.

The courses are offered on-line, which means I can do them when I can focus and concentrate (as opposed to traditional classes where you attend on a set schedule). Most of the lectures are broken up into smaller segments (usually not more than twenty minutes). That is a considerable advantage for me even now.

If you want to try it I would suggest you start with one course. Pick the one course that sounds most interesting to you and do it for at least two weeks before adding any additional courses. It takes a little while to grow used to being back in school, even on-line courses, and to understand and accommodate what the course expects. Also, for your first class, choose what is most interesting to you, not what you most need. You need to grow used to taking these courses first. Once you know what to expect, you can focus on other needs.

I think the largest selection of courses is at http://www.coursera.org. Another site with good courses is at http://www.edx.org. A comprehensive (but overwhelming) list is at http://www.class-central.com.

Good luck!