Eight ways you can acquire new skills online during the lockdown

For all those who thought coding was for geeks and tech geniuses, nothing could be further from the truth - what's more, coding is even good for you - according to experts, learning to code helps you do better in other subjects, especially if you are a student. This is because coding helps you break down a program and solve it logically. Coding is also a huge bonus on your CV as it opens many doors and opportunities. With the numerous free online courses available, coding is now mainstream and there are even courses for kids. Codeacademy, Treehouse, Hack Design, Udemy all provide coding classes online. Image credit: Image by Pexels from Pixabay

You can watch a Youtube video and start painting, opt for professional watercolour painting sessions online, or even go a step further and learn art theoretically. If you feel that art is your calling during these lockdown days, there is a wide variety online to choose from – from the more basic sessions such as scrapbook.com’s Watercolour 101, which gives you a free basic step-by-step guide to watercolour painting to the more technical art and design classes offered by universities colleges, online. Some of these include Harvard University’s classes on Ancient Egyptian Art and Archaeology by Harvard Egyptology professor and Psychology of Art and Creativity by the University of Florida. Image credit: Image by Martina Bulková from Pixabay

Imagine taking a Harvard course without even travelling to the Ivy League College. For those of you who are interested, the University has made a set of 67 courses completely free of cost during the lockdown period. These programmes, which have varying durations from one week to 12 weeks, range from courses on subjects such as programming, medicine, health, humanities, business to art and design. Other Ivy League Universities, including Cornell, Brown, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia and University of Pennsylvania are also offering free online courses in a variety of subjects including, engineering, mathematics, education, humanities, social sciences and health and medicine. Some of the interesting courses that you can look at include 'Hinduism Through Its Scriptures', by Harvard University, ‘Machine Learning for Data Science and Analytics’ by Columbia University, and the ‘Ethics of eating’ by Cornell University. In case you are looking to enhance your wellbeing, you can also try out Yale’s Science of Well Being, the university’s happiness course. Image credit: Image by David Mark from Pixabay

You can put your isolation time into good use by enrolling in online skill development and upgradation course. Online platforms such as Coursera, edX, upGrad FutureLearn, etc offer courses from across various fields ranging from Management, Arts and Science, the Humanities, Digital Marketing, Machine Learning and Software Development, from the top Universities and colleges globally. The courses are of varying length and duration – from a couple of hours to even a two-year-long Masters' programme. These are also great platforms to connect with others who share similar expertise or interest, exchange ideas, help and motivate each other. The United Nations also offers many free digital courses that cover a range of topics such as Human Rights, Sanitation, Gender Violence, Management Tools and how international organisations deal with conflict areas. Image credit: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Health and wellness should be a top priority during the lockdown, however, with gyms and fitness centres shut down, the avenues to work out at are limited. But, that does not mean that you need to bid goodbye to your fitness regime - there are numerous apps and workout sessions online that you can opt from depending on your level and interest. Online fitness sites provide workout sessions, which combine high-intensity workouts, bodyweight workouts, dance routines and yoga and meditation. You can also try your hand at Zumba and other dance forms. FTTR, cure.fit, SELF and Nike Fitness Club are sites that you can check out, while American fitness coach Joe Wick’s 30-minute 9 AM classes on YouTube have also become a great hit among both beginners and fitness enthusiasts. Image credit: Image by Irina L from Pixabay

Now that attending language classes or travelling to places to practice your spoken language skills is not possible, you can go online and join your preferred language course. Learning a new language has been linked to improving memory, keeping the mind sharper and enhancing problem-solving skills. It also gives you an extra edge at work and works wonders on your CV. Duolingo, Babble, Drops and Memrise are some language learning apps you can try out. Image credit: Image by Juraj Varga from Pixabay

A great way to power your grey cells, reduce stress and increase your creativity is by learning a musical instrument. Fender, the manufacturer of stringed instruments and amplifiers is offering a three-month free course on their Fender play app for those who wish to learn guitar, either acoustic or electric or the ukulele. While Fender started off by limiting the free subscriptions to just 1,00,000, they now have 10,00,000 learners. Berkley College of Music also offers guitar lessons for those who are interested. Image credit: Image by Pexels from Pixabay

If back-to-back episodes on Netflix or Amazon Prime has kindled the storytelling side in you or if being locked down at home is bringing out the poet in you, then creative writing courses are something you need to try out. You can try Open Learn’s fiction writing classes or for something more professional, you can join the paid Masterclass which features writers such as R.L Stine and Judy Blume, filmmakers such as Spike Lee, Mira Nair and David Lynch, or musicians such as Hans Zimmer. A single class costs USD 90 and a year’s worth of access costs USD 180. Image credit: Image by free stock photos from www.picjumbo.com from Pixabay