Five Insightful Online Short Courses For Consideration

Covid-19 came, and it quietened our lives. With work from home and limited movements, what have you been up to, to expand your knowledge horizon?

Here is a list and links to five online short courses I found insightful:

1. Global Ethics: An Introduction by The Open University

If you are a philosophy wonk, you will enjoy this course. The course is primarily anchored on Peter Singer's thought experiment of a drowning child. The thought experiment goes something like this, imagine you're walking to work in the morning down a quiet rural road to the side of the road there's a pond and pass by every day. Only today, something is different. Today you see a small child in that pond.

He is alone, he's flailing his arms, and if you don't act quickly, it looks like he is going to drown. Luckily, the pond is shallow. You can wade in, grab the child, and bring him to safety without putting yourself in any danger at all.

Unluckily, you're wearing a very expensive set of clothes, and there just isn't enough time to take them off. So even though saving the child is perfectly safe, it is going to cost you at least $500 to replace your suit and shoes. There's no one else around, so the decision is yours alone to make.

Do you wade in, save the child, and ruin your expensive clothes? Or do you decide that $500 just too high a price to pay for the life of someone you don't even know and walk on by?

The thought experiment presents a moral dilemma which is debated throughout the course, giving the basis on why health and health-related issues need to be everyone's moral obligation even if you are not directly affected.

Link: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/global-ethics/2/expired

For those new to philosophy, you can try the Introduction to Philosophy course by The University of Edinburgh

Link: https://www.coursera.org/learn/philosophy

2. Healthy Futures by Murdoch University

This course is a brief introduction to health policy. The three weeks content in any way you want to define it will pique your interest in policy research. I would suggest you follow it with the Health Systems Strengthening course by The University of Melbourne described below. It will help you close the policy and implementation loop.

Link: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/healthy-futures/5/todo/74868

3. Global Health Governance: Addressing Globalisation and Health inequities by St George's, University of London

If you are a Global Health Practioner or health specialist interested in further exploring global health governance and the challenges facing healthcare workers and policymakers, this course is ideal for you.

Link: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/global-ethics/2/expired

4. Partnering for Change: Link Research to Societal Challenges by University of Basel

Have you ever wondered how well to conduct multi-disciplinary research? What tools do you have available for you? If the answers to those questions are of derivative value, then you need to try this course.

Link: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/partnering-for-change/1/expired

5. Health System Strengthening by The University of Melbourne

Are you interested in having an in-depth understanding of how complex health systems work as a unit? How the various parts play out to give you the desired outcomes? What often guide the decisions on where a country should put its resources? Try this course which is sponsored by UNICEF that means you will unlimited access to the course content. The reading resources provided in this course are so rich in content, take your time with the course. The recommended three hours a week might not suffice if you want to be intimate with the course content.

Link: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/health-systems-strengthening/3/todo/71331

Different tools have liberalised the knowledge space for some of us in the low and middle-income countries (LMICs), they have brought down the walls that made it so difficult for some of us to access some of these resources. As Josh Waitzkin once posited, "The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety."