I’m revisiting the eternal question of how to achieve 45 hours of CPD over the course of three years.
One of my previous blog posts named vet specialist sites offering free and low-cost CPD and is worth a look, but more recently I have been exploring the world of MOOCs (massive open online courses). Simply take a tablet or laptop and improve your knowledge in the sun!
MOOCs are a recent development to try and provide higher education at no cost to the maximum amount of people. These courses are run entirely online and last a number of weeks. But what is interesting is that the information then stays open for more people to access. You can learn at any time you please – particularly handy for working around awkward VN shift patterns!
Certificates of completion are available for most and – as there is currently no quality assurance for vet or nurse CPD – you can justify CPD external to vet providers if they can enhance your role.
Do you need management support? learning and thinking skills? Do you want to improve your exotics or equine knowledge?
I have discovered all of these, and more, via three main sites:
- Coursera: an education platform that partners with top universities and organisations worldwide (including many from the UK Russell Group) to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.
- edX: offers “interactive online classes and MOOCs from the world’s best universities” – although mainly American institutions incuding MIT and Harvard.
- FutureLearn: a newer European version of edX, offering “a diverse selection of free, high quality online courses” from leading UK and international universities.
Courses that may be of interest include:
- Think 101x – the science of everyday thinking
- Horse care and management
- Starting university for students
- Study skills for international students
- How to give a great presentation
- Introduction to bioethics
Happy learning!
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