Kochi student en route to 101 online courses
KOCHI: The Covid-19 pandemic has brought in a new era of online education. An interesting aspect of the growing virtual classrooms is the sudden spurt in the number of short-term online courses being offered by various educational institutions. Also, with the lockdowns and containment zones preventing youngsters from going out, taking courses online has become an fruitful pastime. However, for some like 23-year-old Noel Antony, online courses are a means to honour his alma mater.
“The lockdown in March came soon after the final semester examinations for my BCom course were over. Remaining confined within the four walls of my house and playing games on the mobile soon became boring. So, I consulted my mentor Fr John Christopher from my alma mater St Albert’s College and I told him I wanted to do some online courses,” said Noel. The young graduate had already been selected for Harvard’s Crosswords Emerging Leadership Programme. He was one among five from India selected for the international conference associated with the Harvard programme this year.
“However, the programme had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. When I expressed interest in taking online courses, Fr John suggested a few. Some of my friends in Nigeria and Iran came up with a few more,” added Noel. It was during this time that he came to realise that his alma mater was entering its 75th anniversary.In honour of his college, Noel decided to enrol in and complete 75 online courses. “I have already completed 88 and am inching towards my goal of finishing 101 courses,” he said. Noel, who has been admitted to NIT Kozhikode’s MBA programme feels he found ample time to learn new things just by setting aside the mobile phone.
“One advantage of online courses is that they are short-term and allow you to take them at your convenience. A student can log in at his or her convenience, attend the class (most of which are recorded) and write the examination at the end of the course. It is all very easy and anybody can do it from the comfort of their homes,” said Noel. The average duration of the courses he took spans two to three weeks.
He started with courses that were related to business, management and entrepreneurship. “Later, I decided to explore other fields too and completed courses like health workers programme, social development, psychology, child protection, communication, improving professional skills, sustainable development and climate change,” he said.
The platforms he consulted were EdX, Future Learn, United Nations Agora, WHO, Saylor Academy and Google. In addition, Noel has completed the online courses from esteemed international universities like Harvard, Kings College London, University of Leeds, Central Queensland University, University of Newcastle and five others. He has completed 17 courses from the United Nations and 10 from the World Health Organization. Noel is currently attempting to learn Spanish online.