I love to learn, and feel it’s important as a writer to stretch myself, as my imagination is like a muscle which strengthens with exercise.
Which is why my interest was piqued when a friend recently told me about ‘MOOCs’, or ‘Massive Online Open Courses’.
They are offered through universities across the globe in a vast range of languages and subjects, and more importantly they are FREE!
I’ve signed up for a MOOC called ‘The Greatest Unsolved Mysteries of the Universe’ offered by the Australian National University. It will take me around 10 weeks to complete and covers astrophysics such as the Big Bang Theory (not the TV show!), redshift, quasars and dark matter.
The maths involved is pretty hairy, but I’ve taken my scientific calculator out and dusted it off, and seem to be keeping up so far.
The subject matter is about as far from my current w.i.p. as you could get (upper MG fantasy) but I love bouncing from one to the other on my computer screen.
So if you love to learn, sign up for a MOOC today — it’s free if you don’t require a certificate, and even if you do, it’s only a nominal fee.
Pen Avey 