EdX (www.edx.org), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and governed by MIT and Harvard, which has the goals of expanding access to education, enhancing learning and advancing teaching and learning through research, offers many useful online courses from world’s top universities such as MIT, Harvard University, University of California Berkeley, and The University of Texas System. The course instructors are top professors from best colleges and universities in the US and some edX courses offer ID verified Certificates of Achievement.
Two great courses for those who want to develop their writing and speaking skills are: 1) College Writing: Principles of Written English, and 2) Introduction to Public Speaking.
College Writing
The five-week College Writing is offered by University of California Berkeley in association with the US Department of State to address the global demand for 21st century English language skills. The course is an introduction to academic writing. The course deals with essay development, grammatical correctness, and self-editing. Course materials include downloadable videos and readings. The course empowers students with writing skills and enables them to become autonomous learners. The students are required to write one full essay for this course. Participants can take part in online discussions and submit their writings for peer review. Various studies have shown that peer correction and review is an effective approach to help ESL/EFL learners acquire English language skills.
The course instructor Dr Maggie Sokolik, an English language specialist, has been a faculty member at Harvard University, MIT, Texas A&M, and Northern Arizona University. Though the course started on November 8, those who are interested in auditing the course can register by visiting www.edx.org/course/berkeley/colwri2-1x/college-writing-2-1x-principles/1194.
Public Speaking
This 10-week course, which will start on January 7, 2014, deals with principles of public speaking and critical analysis of speeches of participants of the programme and those of others through interactive practice. As the course is offered in an experimental format, participants can audit the course and take part in all course activities but certificates will not be issued. In order to benefit from the course, students need to be able to record video using cell phone or digital camera and have access to You Tube or Aptara. Dr Matt McGarrity, senior lecturer in the Communication Department at University of Washington, is the course instructor. To register, visit www.edx.org/course/university-washington/comm220uwx/introduction-public-speaking/1234.
— rayanal@yahoo.co.uk