Summer MOOCs recommendations

If you’re the type of person who looks forward to the holidays all year but gets bored after three days, a bit of light learning could be just the remedy.

These days there’s no need to spend your precious summer hours tucked away in a summer-school classroom when you can dip into some free calculus while you’re waiting for the swim-up bar to open. There’s an online course for almost anything: dog grooming, aromatherapy, psychology – really, anything.

If you’ve been thinking of polishing up your skills over summer but you’re not ready to commit to a full qualification, then taking a MOOC (massive open online course) is a great way to get a taste and have both a relaxing and productive holiday. MOOCs are free and delivered by top lecturers and teachers across the globe.

Without further ado, here are some of the top MOOCs on offer for summer study. And if there's a MOOC you've been raving about, let us know in the comments below!

If these haven’t whetted your appetite then you can look out for some more MOOCs hitting the web in early January 2014. The soon-to-launch FutureLearn out of the United Kingdom is offering courses on sustainability, branding, forensic science and the intriguing subject of ‘randomness, chance and free will’ early next year. Cornell is also set to start offering courses next semester and our very own University of Melbourne is making its MOOC debut with ‘discrete optimisation’ in March.

But for now, make the most of the silly season by seeing what it’s like to learn online. You might even find yourself signing up to get some more serious online qualifications in the new year. Just don’t get sand in your laptop this summer.