In this current state of lockdown why not learn something new? I have personally always wanted to learn an African Language and there is no better time than now.

Check out our list of Top 10 Free online course, that are sure to keep you busy in these freaky times we find ourselves in. 

10. Success - Achieve Success with Emotional Intelligence

Success and happiness are what most of us chase for most of our lifetimes. Interestingly, however, little is taught in schools about how to achieve success beyond the academic measures.

Increasingly what is needed to succeed in one’s life and career goes beyond the academic achievements. For example, beyond the entry threshold of the required skills and IQs for a given job, emotional intelligence is found to be responsible for 80% of the success of individuals.

Employers are seeking individuals who are self aware and able to manage themselves and their relationships with others. This is seldom taught at schools and individuals are not even aware of thisfact. This course offers an opportunity to work in a structured manner to define, discover and achieve success in a fun way working together with other students.

This course is offered as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to enable as many people as possible to cultivate traits, skills and habits that will lead them to achieving success and happiness. The course is a simple start of a lifelong journey of self improvement and development. The course is designed and delivered collaboratively by Dr Mushtak Al-Atabi from Taylor’s University and Dr Jennifer DeBoer from MIT.

8. Intercultural Communication

Explore how to improve your communication with people from other cultures

7. The Science of Happiness

We all want to be happy, and there are countless ideas about what happiness is and how we can get some. But not many of those ideas are based on science. That's where this course comes in.

"The Science of Happiness" is the first MOOC to teach the ground-breaking science of positive psychology, which explores the roots of a happy and meaningful life. Students will engage with some of the most provocative and practical lessons from this science, discovering how cutting-edge research can be applied to their own lives. Created by UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, the course will zero in on a fundamental finding from positive psychology: that happiness is inextricably linked to having strong social connections and contributing to something bigger than yourself--the greater good. Students will learn about the cross-disciplinary research supporting this view, spanning the fields of psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and beyond.

What's more, "The Science of Happiness" offers students practical strategies for tapping into and nurturing their own happiness, including trying several research-backed activities that foster social and emotional well-being, and exploring how their own happiness changes along the way.

The course's co-instructors, Dacher Keltner and Emiliana Simon-Thomas, are not only leading authorities on positive psychology but also gifted teachers skilled at making science fun and personal. They'll be joined by world-renowned experts discussing themes like empathy, mindfulness, and gratitude--experts including Barbara Fredrickson, Paul Ekman, Sonja Lyubomirsky, and Jon Kabat-Zinn. Health professionals who register can earn continuing education units for their participation.

6. Diploma in Plumbing Studies

This free online course in plumbing will introduce you to the plumbing profession. Plumbers are highly trained professionals, responsible for the installation of safe and efficient plumbing systems which provide a myriad of essential services. From heating to sanitation, a plumber's knowledge is essential to society. This free online course will help you get started in the plumbing profession, and cultivating the skills that go with it.

5. Making sense of art history

You can prepare for this free course, Making sense of art history, by looking around you. It's likely that wherever you are you'll be able to see some images. It's also likely that many of these will be intended to have some sort of effect on you. In the course itself you will be exploring the power of images via a study of contemporary art from the 1980s onwards. Taking the time to look beyond the immediate appearance of an art work to consider what the artist might be trying to say can be immensely rewarding.

After studying this course, you should be able to:
- identify the effects of art works
- understand a range of artistic techniques, such as the use of colour, composition and medium
- recognise the relationship between effects and techniques in a range of art works
- understand some of the factors involved in interpreting meaning
- understand the significance of context in informing the interpretation of art works.

 4. Conflict Resolution Skills

Resolving conflict in a positive manner is a skill than can be developed and practiced. Being heard can be one of the most important goals of someone engaged in conflict. Knowing how to listen and deploy appropriate communication tactics is determinative of whether a conflict will have a positive or negative resolution. Examine listening skills, appropriate and strategic verbal and non-verbal communication skills, and how to assemble a conflict management plan likely to yield positive resolutions. 

3. Advanced Parenting Skills

This free online Advanced Parenting Skills course will teach you cutting-edge tools, strategies and techniques that you can use to help you become best parent you can be. Parenting is an amazingly difficult and complex job, it can seem truly impossible without the right training! This course contains a series of acclaimed techniques and explanations that can help you to improve quickly your parenting abilities and understand your child.

2. How to Build a Startup

In an introduction to the basics of the famous Customer Development Process, Steve Blank provides insight into the key steps needed to build a successful startup.

The main idea in this course is learning how to rapidly develop and test ideas by gathering massive amounts of customer and marketplace feedback. Many startups fail by not validating their ideas early on with real-life customers. In order to mitigate that, students will learn how to get out of the building and search for the real pain points and unmet needs of customers. Only with these can the entrepreneur find a proper solution and establish a suitable business model.

Building a startup is not simply building an execution plan for a business model that the entrepreneur thinks will work, but rather, a search for the actual business model itself.

1. Learn to speak an African Language 

The phrases that you will learn are relevant to South Africans who would like to acquire some basic skills in an African language. Learning a new language is always exciting and you will see that we have developed the course in a way that allows you to systematically work through the vocabulary relevant to a particular theme. There is a video clip at the end of each theme showing the context in which the vocabulary can be used.