I'm beyond excited to offer you all a discount code of 15% off a* FutureLearn course!
*this code only applies to courses that are available to upgrade and not for degree's or paid-for courses
Aimee_Wilson_15
(This code will only be available for the first 80 people to use it!)
For the
Writer:
This
course eight-week course is developed by the Open University and you’re advised
to spend three hours a week on it. It’s also completely FREE but for £42 you
can ‘upgrade’ to have unlimited access (which means there’s no eight-week
limit) and a certificate. In this course you will hear from established writers
who will talk about how they first began writing, and you’ll learn how to keep
a journal and use it as a tool to develop your ideas and document your inspiration.
My
favourite exercise in this course was actually, the final assignment; it was rewarding
to finally put together all of my ideas for characters, storylines, and the
research one of the exercises requires you to carry out. The entire course
helped me to learn the long and hard process that is required to put together an
interesting and believable piece of writing.
The
hardest part of the course was getting feedback on my writing. It was
particularly hard for me because all my writing/blogging is personal; it’s all
about me, so to write an entire assignment of fiction was challenging. In the
end, I couldn’t put it together without having a character based upon myself
and with a storyline that would be plausible (though I haven’t necessarily
experienced) to my life. This meant that I had to try hard to distance myself
to stop any negative critique from being hurtful. It was hard – like I said –
but a great learning curve in my writing. And it helped that in the end, all the
feedback on my final piece was positive and full of praise!
For the
Digitally Savvy:
This
two-week course is developed by Accenture and you’re advised to spend two hours
per week on it. It is also completely free and with no fee for an ‘upgrade’; on
completion of the course you achieve a digital certificate that you can print out
yourself. In this course you’ll learn about digital marketing strategies, find
out why they’re so important, and learn how they can be integrated for
organisations to target a specific audience.
My
favourite part of this is course was learning the different types of digital
marketing; from Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) to Search Engine Optimisation
(SEO). It was really interesting to learn the names and qualities of these
strategies and it’s been so helpful in my posts on social media and I’m NOT
Disordered. Since adopting some of these methods into my own marketing work
(both for I’m NOT Disordered and other organisations) my audience has increased
and so has the amount of interaction my posts get.
The most
challenging part of this course was probably remembering all of the abbreviations
and acronyms for the technical side of digital marketing. I think this might
have been down to my terrible memory, but the course featured a ‘jargon buster’
during Week One so that was very helpful! I think that my passion for the
subject really helped me with this difficulty because I was so eager to learn
that I persevered.
For the
Brainiac:
This
eight-week course was also developed by the Open University and you’re advised
to spend three hours a week studying. It is also free but there is an optional
£52 ‘upgrade’ which will allow you unlimited access to the course (so you could
study at your own pace) and you’ll be awarded with a certificate on completion.
In this course you’ll learn about the importance of witnesses in criminal
cases, the struggles around obtaining their testimony, and throughout the
course you will have special insight into a case and using your new skills – at
the end – you’ll be asked to solve it!
My
favourite part of this course has been the realistic insight into a case and the
determination it gives you to see the entire thing through by completing the
course. I also found it really interesting to learn about the impact witness
testimony has had in real-life, past cases.
The
hardest thing – and the reason I’ve labelled this course as perfect for a ‘Brainiac’
– is how very intense it is. It’s a lot of hard work and it’s taken me well
over three hours a week, but I think that’s because this course is a small part
of a Degree and I only got as far as my A Levels; and that was back in 2009!