Cottingham

Web Courses and Information

From time to time this page will be updated as new websites or courses become available.

The internet contains a vast wealth of information;
- from the "encyclopaedic" wikipedia to the short "How to do it" Utube videos and 
- from the thousands of 3 to 30 minute entertaining TED talks (see below), to the weekly modules of one of the MOOCs (Massive Open On-line Courses) produced by the American, British and Australian Universities.

Many courses can be started in your own time and followed at your own speed. Others start at a specific date but will probably be repeated again in the near future e.g. www.Open2Study.com modules are usually 4 weeks long, repeating every 5 weeks.

A few courses may incur a small charge or gain revenue by displaying advertising, and some require you to register (usually with your e-mail address) to enable them to follow your progress.

This page will outline a number of websites that should provide something for everyone at whatever level. Just click on the relevant web address to access the sites. If the link fails, type (or copy) the web address into your own browser to gain access.

General Knowledge Sources:

www.met.police.uk/docs/littlebookscam.pdf Essential advice booklet on how to avoid scams, whether by post, phone or on-line.
www.wikipedia.org One of the largest sources of general information
www.onelook.com finds multiple definitions from numerous dictionaries all in one place, even if you’re looking up a phrase that is obscure or too specific for normal dictionaries to help.
www.geographyiq.com Provides virtually every facet of useful information there is about a country, including history, currency, population and more.
www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en Impartial money advice, guides and calculators in clear english (including latest pensions changes) and government backed

Reading:

www.spreeder.com Many people can only read as fast as their “inner voice” can. Spreeder teaches you to read without an inner voice, boosting reading speed and comprehension immensely.
www.gutenberg.org Download thousands of free e-books (legally), especially classics and those that are out of copyright.

Using a Computer or Tablet

www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/0/20595791A range of video and written guides to help you make the most of your mobile, tablet, computer or interactive TV.
www.pcwisdom.co.uk Computing for the Older and Wiser. Select "Tutorials" for details on Basic Computing, Photography, E-Mailing, etc. Select Internet Links for access to many useful sites.

Informational Lectures and Short Videos

www.ehow.com Learn how to do just about anything!
www.ask.com Find the answers to almost everything
www.howstuffworks.com broadens your horizons by providing information on a variety of topics and eye-opening facts that you didn’t know you wanted to know!
www.ted.com TED provides free insights from the world’s smartest people with over 2,000 entertaining 3 to 30 minute video talks. The list of talks can be filtered by broad subject topics, or length of talk, etc. and can be arrange in several ways e.g. by date, most popular,etc.

Interests

www.photographycourse.net offers free basic photography lessons and tutorials about a wide variety of topics, including: film, optics, cameras, light, digital
www.walkinginengland.co.uk/yorkshireClick on 'FREE' to see a large variety of walks grouped by nearest town, each with details, map reference and a free map to print. A few walks are of only 0.5 mile, some entirely round a town/village and some suitable for wheelchairs.

Academic Courses

www.lifehack.org/articles/money/25-killer-sites-for-free-online-education.html Provides a list and description of 25 of the "most useful" educational sites.
www.khanacademy.org Provides courses of varying length using text and video with most subjects broken down into small steps with occasional interactions and tests. If registered, the platform will assess your progress and help you gauge what you’ve learned.
www.futurelearn.comFutureLearn is the main UK platform for free online courses and is part of the Open University
www.ocw.mit.edu/index.htm Free online courses from the world's best universities including MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, UT and others.
www.edx.org A non-profit site offering free quality courses from top universities and covering a great range of topics.
www.coursera.org Coursera is an education platform that partners with top universities and organizations worldwide, to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.
www.learnmyway.com Free courses on various subjects including several about using a computer