What Things You Didn’t Know People Can Learn Online

Online learning is probably one of the most appreciated and acceptable ways of gaining knowledge today. Even though it might take a fair amount of time to do your homework, it is still hard to out beat the benefits it has to offer. All these learning outcomes that you gain after taking classes online are definitely worth the effort.

Research shows that online courses produce learning just as good as traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Of course, the learning experience largely depends on the teacher and the style of teaching. Some people believe that traditional college is not really about learning, but about the experience that happens outside of the classroom. Maybe there are some experiences out there that are hard to replicate online and some topics are hard to teach online as well. But most of all this depends on your goals and whether you actually enjoy the learning process itself or not. Today, you can learn so many things online that you couldn’t even imagine learning all by yourself not that long ago. 

Don’t have time or money for getting a college degree? Maybe you just simply don’t want to go to college? In this case, online learning is a very good solution since it provides access to a wide variety of learning resources. The truth is that there are lots of useful skills that we will never learn at traditional schools. But today you can get a hold of anything you’re interested in learning. Just go online and do some searching on the Internet. 

In this blog post, let’s go over some skills that generally most people don’t even think they could learn online.

Become a healthcare professional with online healthcare courses 

Internet technologies made it possible to learn healthcare online today. Sounds striking? Yes, it is. If you do a Google search, you’ll see that there are many online programs in health care management, including MBAs. Many healthcare programs today are hybrid – a mix of classroom and online work. Depending on your experience and career goals, there are online programs that will be able to meet your needs and interests.

There are plenty of online and off-campus courses offered by accredited medical colleges all over the world. However, carefully check those unscrupulous and bogus institutions that are set up to make a profit out of unsuspecting students. Or even genuine ones that can offer the world but deliver little or nothing to their students. Do your homework first and double-check with the country’s authority which controls its educational institutions for the authenticity and quality of these educational establishments.

A proven fact is that online healthcare courses can be as good as those offered on-campus. Clearly, the mode of learning delivery is different. In fact, the standards with on-line services are improving leaps and bounds. Some medical colleges arrange real-time sessions online to answer questions at least once a week or every other week during the semester for students who want to participate. The same standards of assessment are provided that correlate with students’ assignments and examinations. Students observe the same deadlines for the submission of assignments.

The final decision whether a person wants to take healthcare courses online or in a traditional way depends on a number of factors. Here are a few common aspects that can have an impact on your final decision:

• Expectations from education;
• Age and maturity of the student;
• Student’s access to supplemental materials and support;
• Family situations (small children, a spouse who travels or works a non-standard schedule, elder parents, etc.);
• Income (full-time college can be very expensive, which makes holding a daytime job difficult);
• Health or other personal issues (physical or mental health issues ranging from arthritis to anxiety disorders can make attending college very challenging).

So, what is the most popular skill in healthcare you can learn online? While there are many medical courses available on the Internet, Medical Writing is considered to be one of the rewarding courses for health professionals. Medical Writing enhances the written communications and keeps the health professional abreast with the subject. Below are a few reasons why to take medical writing courses online if you want to become a health professional:

• Effective writing skill is a prerequisite for those healthcare professionals, who are involved in clinical study and lab-research. This skill effectively conveys complex scientific concepts and critical clinical information.
• The training on the narrative form of writing enables healthcare professionals to articulate scientific concepts and research into layman’s understanding.
• Good written communication bridges the doctor-patient relationship through knowledge sharing and facilitating the patients to understand their condition and make informed decisions.
• Mastering medical writing skills opens several career opportunities for healthcare software companies, health start-ups, healthcare analytics, CRO’s, publications, pharmaceuticals, biotech companies, medical communication agencies, and more.

Also, here are three popular online healthcare educational resources for you to look at:

• Lecturio is among the best ones currently available for medical students.  The platform is very organized and video lectures themselves are well illustrated in addition to having them conducted by the professors teaching in the world’s leading universities. If you get a premium membership, you’ll be provided with video lectures, practice questions, reading materials, and study guidance courses. Begin with the Medical School Survival Guide and then move on to watching lectures. The course will teach you how to use the platform and how to integrate it into your academic life.
• Osmosis is an online healthcare resource that contains short and concise video lectures.
• MedicoVisual is a relatively new online medical lectures website/YouTube channel. The idea is to present the complex medical concept in a palatable and easy-to-understand format with the help of animations and 2D and 3D illustrations. Lectures get uploaded on a regular basis.

Needless to say, having online healthcare courses is very beneficial for the public. It becomes especially crucial in the times of COVID-19 when there is a shortage of health staff everywhere, and even the world’s best healthcare systems are seemingly failing to cope with such overwhelming demand.

Optimize your brain’s capabilities by learning neuroscience online 

Virtual learning space is a very, very big arena for learning neuroscience. The best way to learn neuroscience online is to find information online resources, which would be relevant to your interests. Yes, neuroscience is a broad area that includes lots of things. So, make a list of defined questions and focus on those for which you’d like to find answers first.

Before you dive deep into this subject, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do I want to do with the information?
• Do I want to build a career in neuroscience?
• Do I want to learn stuff about personalities to understand mine better?
• None of the above?

Because neuroscience studies the function of the brain, it is based upon a lot of other sciences, which have fundamental principles that govern how the brain works. Once you understand the basic principles of science and how to apply them to the brain, then you’ll be well on your way to being a neuroscience enthusiast. After that, pick specific topics that you’re interested in. It can be anything from cognitive neuroscience to neurodegenerative disease or neuropharmacology. There’s a wealth of free information and courses online.

To learn neuroscience, you will need to understand:

• Anatomy – which is the study of the structure of the human body.
• Molecular Biology – study about cells, DNA, RNA, etc. Since the brain is a living thing, it is made of cells, and the structure and function of those cells are controlled by DNA coding for proteins. If you understand cell biology, DNA transcription and translation, and cellular respiration, you can apply these concepts to the neurons and glia of the brain.
• Physiology –  learn about physiological mechanisms.
• Biochemistry – learn about the biochemical processes in living systems.
• Neurons, synapses, neural networks – important parts of neuroscience study.
• Mathematics and coding – if you’re interested in computational neuroscience or image analysis, but those are more advanced topics.
• Physics – the electrical properties of the brain and how we can measure brain activity using fMRI. Again, you don’t need to take a formal course but know that neurons generate charges and behave a lot like circuits – the principles behind the action potential.
• Chemistry –  You don’t need to learn all of chemistry, but be comfortable with molecules, receptor affinity, and the idea that cells have molecular signaling pathways. Learn the area of chemistry which explains how neurotransmitters bind to receptors to cause changes within the cells of the brain.
• Psychology – this scientific field paved the way for neuroscience as we know it today. Understanding that all of a brain’s activity combines to produce thoughts, emotions, and behaviors really helps put all of the tedious details in perspective and make the process of learning neuroscience more rewarding.

One thing to avoid while learning neuroscience is falling into the temptation of taking easy promises. Remain skeptical because this is something that is true to the essence of science and hence to the essence of neuroscience. Treat this learning journey with an open mind but a cold heart. Why? Because neuroscience has become so trendy all over the world that it mostly gets presented from a marketing perspective now.  

Today neuroscience is more and more appended to virtually all these “trendy” disciplines, such as neuroeducation, neuroplasticity, neuro-magic, neuro-economy, neuro-gastronomy, innovation, leadership, etc. This can be quite confusing, especially for those who are aiming to learn and understand it from a scientific perspective. For all of the people who want to learn neuroscience online, there is a lot of great free info on the Internet.

Here are a few online resources that worth checking out:

• Scholarpedia’s Neuroscience Online Portal (scholarpedia.org) for some very in-depth articles;
• grey.colorado.edu (also provides most up-to-date content about the latest research in neuroscience)
• brain-map.org – brain map from the Allen Institute for Brain Science
• brainscanr.com – explore relationships between neuroscientific terms
• neuroguide.com – NeuroGuide – a guide to neuroscience resources on the web – sort of old though
• NeuroMorpho.Org (neuron morphology)
• neurosynth.org (fMRI data)

If you don’t really have a focus and just find neuroscience “entertaining”, then a good place to start is learning about a creature that has a very simplified nervous system. For example, you can start off by studying the nervous system of the jellyfish. Because it is relatively simple but has organization you can delve into how the neurons work to produce behavior in the jellyfish. Your knowledge will grow with time with fundamental properties that can only be understood by taking one step at a time. Consequently, you’ll learn everything that neuroscience has to offer today for a better understanding of the huge complexity of the human nervous system.

There is a wide array of subfields that approach neuroscience at various levels of abstraction, from the molecular and genetic, to the cellular, to the systems level, to the cognitive and decision-making level, even to the level of social interaction, or the utilization of computational and mathematical modeling. The beauty of neuroscience is that there are so many different angles one can approach the topic and still find a plethora of unanswered questions.

Conclusion

The Corona epidemic has forced us to embrace online education. Over the last few months, we have become acquainted with many different types of technology that we never even dreamed of. Due to the proliferation of the Internet, we already used to use a lot of technology for the purpose of education. And it seems normal. Since many schools and colleges shift to online learning more and more now, we see a significant increase in the popularity of virtual classes. And, yes, many online courses are just as good as any university-level course.

No doubt, eLearning is far better today compared to traditional classes. This is not only a safer way to attend classes but also a very effective solution for getting a good grasp of the concepts. Besides, it makes a huge difference when you study in comfortable surroundings at the comfort of your home. Don’t like to be stuck at home? No problem! Go out, find Internet access, and learn anytime, anywhere! 

If you think that online learning is the way to go, try eLearning platforms, and pick online courses that you like. There are plenty of online learning platforms like Coursera, Edu4sure, Udemy, or Grinfer that are comprehensive and well-structured. You’ll find thousands of online courses of any level – basic and advanced. Grinfer also provides 1-on-1 online mentoring and consulting with the instructor of your choice. Just book a consultation online and get ready to roll!