Amidst the global outbreak of Coronavirus, many are staying at home. This probably wouldn’t sound like a big problem to you a few months ago. But as it turns out, a forced lockdown is no fun. You can’t accept guests, enjoy your Sunday breakfast in a cafe, or go to the movies. The great news, there’s as much space for learning as you’ve always wanted — but probably lacked.
- Free Online Mac Courses For Beginners
- Mac Computer Training
- Free Online Mac Courses Using
- Free Mac Tutorials For Beginners
To support those forced to join the office exodus, many universities and distance learning organizations are offering free access to their courses. Stars are aligned — you have free time and access to the world’s best knowledge bases. Let’s make it productive for you.
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Best apps for quarantine fun — all in one
Get Setapp, a desktop suite with top-rated Mac apps. Fix your Mac problems, experiment, and discover new ways to chat with friends.
Who’s giving away free online courses
Varsity Tutors launched Virtual School Day, giving away 30 hours of tutoring every week for students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Literature, science, math — including interactive quizzes and practice problems — it’s the best of modern curriculums condensed into one.
Due to forced quarantines, Coursera for Campus opened the digital door to every edu establishment. 3800 courses and 400 specializations became accessible for free through September 30. The library is pretty impressive and covers anything from business studies to healthcare to information technology.
And if you’re an individual learner, note that Coursera offers many of its top-notch courses for free — if you choose not to get the certificate. Simply filter the library by “free” and pick what suits you best.
For those who’re rather interested in remote work tools, there are a few lucrative offers for you, too. Google announced they are giving away free access to the advanced Hangout Meets functionality. 250 participants per call, live streaming for 100,000 viewers, and the ability to record online meetings are covered. Plus, Zoho made its premium Zoho Remotely package with 11 apps for remote work free to use. Both offers are available through June 1.
You should also know there are digital goodies that are free forever — and it’s the prime time to make use of them. Let’s explore the best free online courses in more detail.
Free online courses in Information Technology
So imagine the quarantine is over. You’re out with your family and friends — celebrating, drinking the best coffee in town, enjoying each other’s company. Best time to break the news: You’re ready to kickstart a new career in IT. Ok, it doesn’t have to be that epic — maybe you just get better in Python or learn the basics of Data Science. One way or another, COVID-19 gives you the chance to excel in one of the top-notch IT free online classes.
freeCodeCamp
Free access: visit site
freeCodeCamp is, basically, an open source community that helps you learn how to code. Start with the basic HTML and CSS, and proceed learning the programming language of your choice. The platform covers practical tasks and small challenges that you can process at your own pace. Earn certifications for every milestone you hit, and get inspired by a supportive community.
What’s more, freeCodeCamp has recently released the so-called Coronavirus Academy, it’s own collection of distance learning programs for coders. You can check it out here.
CS50’s introduction to Computer Science
Free access: visit site
The all-time top 100 on Class Central, CS50’s computer science course is classics. And it’s pretty reasonable. First, the course has been developed by Harvard University. Second, it covers the basics of all major programming languages. Last but not least, it works for both majors and non-majors. So if you want to use the quarantine to make your first step into Computer Science, start with this course.
Fast.ai deep learning course
Free access: visit site
This is an unrivaled deep learning course for those who have at least 1 year of coding experience. Study natural language processing, machine learning, and other cool subjects that will very likely define the future of software engineering.
By the way, the Fast.ai’s community of data scientists has been exploring COVID-19 over the last months. They created a series of insights as to how the new virus is affecting the world, how to detect disinformation, and more. Everything backed by data, naturally. You can check it out on the main page. Even more, if you know any of the foreign languages and want to join these guys for a good cause, you can translate the extensive article they wrote on COVID-19 to help spread the useful information globally.
If none of these meets your needs, go online — as if you could go anywhere else right now — and browse free course libraries on Class Central, Coursera, or Future Learn. Each of these platforms covers different free online learning opportunities for those interested in IT.
Learn a new language online for free
You can do this — you can finally take your French to the new level. It’s a realistic goal if you have these learning websites and apps at your fingertips.
Duolingo
Free access: visit site
This never gets old. Duolingo is a huge platform where language learning is split into small interactive challenges. You can choose your own path, unlock rewards, and suddenly decide to learn more than one language — because this is so much fun.
HelloTalk
Free access: visit site
With this platform, you’re killing two birds with one stone. Learn the language by chatting with native speakers. Talking to a human being is a luxury during the Coronavirus outbreak — so why not make use of it. Apart from the web platform, HelloTalk is also available on iOS and Android for your cozy mobile lessons.
Wokabulary
Free access for Setapp members: visit site
If you want to focus on the vocabulary, this is for you. Get one space for all the words you learn and ingrain them into your memory with Wokabulary. Digital flashcards, interactive quizzes, 100+ languages — it’s all available inside a single app interface. Wokabulary is a paid Mac app, but it’s free for you if you own a Setapp membership.
Cooking, yoga, or art: Online classes for quarantine fun
Your online Spanish classes didn’t go very well last year? Well, that could be because you had too many alternatives as to how you should spend your leisure time. Or, maybe you’ve been postponing your yoga classes for months. It’s about time to start practicing.
Yoga with Adriene
Free access: visit site
When it comes to online yoga classes, over 6 million people trust Adriene. I’ve personally ditched the couch and went through a few videos. And they are great. In the playlists, you’ll find 30-day challenges for regular yoga practice, which work equally well for complete beginners and people who love sweating at gyms. Plus, Adriene and her doggie are super cute — so you’ll definitely enjoy their company.
Online art classes
Free access: visit site
Another distance learning platform, Khan Academy, gives away access to its courses due to COVID-19 quarantine. It’s aimed at school students, but we’ve discovered some hidden gems in the curriculum, which everyone will enjoy. For instance, you can access excellent Art History classes and specialized content from the Museum of Modern Art. Best opportunity to get prepared for your next Louvre visit!
Online cooking classes from Michelin-starred chef
Free access: visit site
Even if you hate cooking, when else will you have the chance to learn from a Michelin chef? Massimo Bottura, whose name is associated with one of Italy’s finest restaurants, Osteria Francescana, recently announced the launch of his Instagram cooking course. It’s called Kitchen Quarantine and it’s a fun video guide to cooking basic stuff at home.
COVID-19 free course about COVID-19
And if you can’t make the coronavirus anxiousness go away, fight fire with fire. Psychologists say hushing your negative thoughts is not the best idea. To overcome a fear, you have to talk about it — even better, explore it.
So here’s great news. The UK education platform, Future Learn, has recently launched an online course on Coronavirus and its worldwide implications. The course is aimed at people who work in healthcare, or anyone interested. Typically, it takes 3 weeks 4 hours per week to complete the course — but you can as well binge-study the whole thing. No problem at all.
Best tools to boost your quarantine studies
Hopefully, among all educational websites and social media challenges, you’ll find at least one thing that will make your dream come true. Or at least have lots of fun. No matter what you choose, these three apps will help you stay productive throughout the learning process.
Boost your learning with Studies
Studies is a digital tutor that looks like a Mac app. After you explore online classes free, bring your notes into Studies and the app will wrap it all into a personalized study plan. And that’s only a part of the magic. Here’s a short list of the features:
Transform your ideas and insights into study notes
Create your custom learning schedule
Set goals and attach them to study notes
Access to detailed progress stats and predictions
Sync via iCloud and share with colleagues or friends via the export button.
Get things done with Be Focused
The chances are your mind is wandering a lot more when you’re working or studying at home. Too many distractions, a fridge being the most cruel of all. Be Focused is the best utility to keep those distractions away. The app helps you bring every small task into a to-do list and tracks how much time you spend on each of them.
Increase your productivity with Be Focused
If you have a hard time getting things done at home, try Be Focused. The app puts your attention where it belongs, magically.
Here’s how Be Focused maintains your focus:
Install the app and click on its icon in the menu bar
Type the name of your task — it will be added to your to-do list automatically
Start the timer for the task and get it done
Click the check mark in the upper left corner once you’ve finished.
Free Online Mac Courses For Beginners
What could be easier? You can also create your custom time intervals in the Settings and check reports at the end of a working day. This will help you better understand the work-from-home productivity and adjust your schedule accordingly.
Capture best ideas with MarginNote
If you stay at home — surprise, surprise — you have more time to work and study. Most likely, you’ll complete more tasks than usual. However, there’s evidence your creativity might suffer while you’re locked in one place. One tool that can help you solve it is called MarginNote.
Mac Computer Training
This is a learning assistant, which stands out from the rest by letting you create as you learn. Flashcards, mind maps, notes — anything you’d like to capture while reading a book or working can be captured in MarginNote. The notes you make might look a bit complex in the end, but the app really helps let your creativity and imagination fly. And naturally, the whole process makes a perfect exercise for your critical thinking.
Summing it up, here’s a short quarantine recipe: Access distance learning on Coursera, Future Learn, and Class Central + Enhance your learning with the tools like Studies, Wokabulary, MarginNote, and Be Focused available on Setapp. If you have a hard time working from home, check out this guide with plenty of advice for remote workers, and stay safe.
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Mac for the Blind is proud to announce the continuation of the Mac for the Blind Online Courses!
Please read the following information carefully. This includes details and a schedule for the planned courses that will run through the Winter and early spring of 2021.
Please note the following:
• Four of these courses are free to join,
• Three of the courses have a $20.00 registration fee involved in joining them.
• The paid courses will have a few additional benefits that are not available with the free courses to be announced later.
• The courses will take place throughout the months of February, March and April.
Please make your selections carefully as you read through the registration information below.
Also, please note that the later dates might be subject to change, though, of course, registrants will be notified well in advance if this should occur.
All of the courses you choose to attend by clicking on the interested buttons below will appear in the following Cart, both free and paid. Once you check out you will receive confirmation of attendance.
1. Welcome to Your Mac.
With the rise in popularity of the Mac as a computer solution for the blind, this course will provide an overview of the Mac and VoiceOver. The material will mainly focus on MacOS and aspects of the Mac that sometimes are misunderstood or overlooked. It is geared for both the brand new Mac user as well as someone who might simply want to check their knowledge and familiarity.
Areas covered will include, as long as time permits:
• MacOS 11 Big Sur and what is an Operating System
• Setting up your Mac and things to be aware of during the setup process.
• Adjusting system settings after the fact.
• VoiceOver and working with the Mac as an overview
• Customizing VoiceOver tips
• Customizing MacOS tips
• System Updates and their impact on VoiceOver
• Backing up your data
• Q&A
This course is a free course for anyone to join.
This course is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, February 9 from 12:30 to 2:00 PM US Eastern time.
Online Lesson 1: Welcome to Your Mac • price = $0.00
2. The VoiceOver Utility and the Commanders features on the Mac
Free Online Mac Courses Using
This course will go into specifics about the VoiceOver Utility on the Mac with a later focus on the four Commanders features. Users often overlook the various ways one can customize VoiceOver, and I will attempt to explain the categories and how they impact ones use of VoiceOver.
The material covered will include:
• What is the VoiceOver Utility
• The categories table
• Speech options
• Apple scripts and VoiceOver
• The Verbosity category
• The web category
• Navigation Category
• The Four Commanders and getting the most out of them
•Q&A
This course is $20.00 to register
This course is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, February 16, from 1:00 to 2:30 PM US Eastern time.
Online Lesson 2: The VoiceOver Utility and the Commanders features on the Mac • price = $20.00
3. What is an Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP)
As someone who has taken the journey to earn my ACSP, I am frequently asked about this certification and all of the details involved in earning it.
Thus, I will attempt to cover the following areas:
• What is the ACSP?
• Why get certified?
• What can one do with an ACSP
• How does one prepare for the process
• The MacOs 11 Essentials Training Guide
• The exam
• Q&A
This course is a free course for anyone to join
This course is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 2, from 1 to 2:30 PM US Eastern Time.
Online Lesson 3: What is an Apple Certified Support Professional • price = $0.00
4. Using Safari and VoiceOver in iOS
I have covered working with Safari on the Mac in the past, but I will attempt to provide information in regard to using Safari effectively on an iOS device.
The material Covered will include:
• The Safari screen layout
• Address bar/search field
• The Tabs screen
• The Bookmarks screen
• The Share Screen
• Navigating web content and taking advantage of the two-dimensional layout of an iOS device
• Making the most of the Rotor in Safari
• The Reader feature
• The Safari Reading List
• Dealing with downloads
• Customizing Safari
• Q&A
This course is $20.00 to register
This course is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 16, from 1:00 to 2:30 PM US Eastern time.
Online Lesson 4:Using Safari and VoiceOver in iOS • price = $20.00
5. You ask me all about the Mac
This will be an hour and a half devoted to you. You bring the questions about the Mac and using VoiceOver and I will do my best to answer them.
• Please keep your questions specific to either MacOS or VoiceOver and as specific as possible
• Please try to keep your questions directed towards a feature or an application
• Please try to email me your Mac and VoiceOver questions ahead of time to help me organize my answers
• If you have questions during the lesson, the chat feature will be used and I will answer them after the ones submitted to me ahead of time.
• Please note that I cannot provide tech support for a more involved problem or issue that can be better answered by an Apple Care support person because of the time constraints.
This course is a free course for anyone to join
This course is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 30, from 1 to 2:30 PM US Eastern Time.
Online Lesson 5: You ask me all about the Mac • price = $0.00
6. VoiceOver and Finder on the Mac
On a computer, knowing where ones files and folders are stored and having the ability to organize ones data is extremely important. Many people find the Finder to be mysterious and confusing, and I will attempt to explain how to use VoiceOver effectively in the Finder.
The material covered will include:
• What is the Finder
• The desktop
• View preferences in Finder
• Navigating the Finder and the folder structure
• iCloud and ones Home Folder layout
• Creating folders
• Copying/pasting and moving items
• Deleting items and the trash
• The Sidebar
• Keyboard shortcuts and the Go menu
• Finder Preferences
• Q&A
Free Mac Tutorials For Beginners
This course is $20.00 to register
This course is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 13, from 1:00 to 2:30 PM US Eastern time.
Online Lesson 6: VoiceOver and Finder on the Mac • price = $20.00
7. You ask me all about iOS
This will be an hour and a half devoted to you. You bring the questions about iOS and using VoiceOver and I will do my best to answer them.
• Please keep your questions specific to either iOS or VoiceOver and as specific as possible
• Please try to keep your questions directed towards a feature or an application
• Please try to email me your iOS and VoiceOver questions ahead of time to help me organize my answers
• If you have questions during the lesson, the chat feature will be used and I will answer them after the ones submitted to me ahead of time.
• Please note that I cannot provide tech support for a more involved problem or issue that can be better answered by an Apple Care support person because of the time constraints.
This course is a free course for anyone to join
This course is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 27, from 1 to 2:30 PM US Eastern Time.
Online Lesson 7: You ask me all about iOS • price = $0.00