Courses > Personal Development

Click any title below to view a complete course description including a syllabus, instructor biography, prerequisites, and requirements.

Grammar Refresher
Instructor: Ellen Feld

Revive your lost or forgotten knowledge of English grammar and gain confidence in your ability to produce grammatically correct writing. Whether you’re a student or professional, a published or beginning writer, this course will help you navigate and master the linguistic twists and turns inherent in English grammar. Grammar is fun if you know the rules. A patient instructor will support you throughout the course, and plenty of interactive exercises will give you ample opportunity to put into practice everything you learn.

Computer Skills for the Workplace
Instructor: David Paquin

Learn the fundamental computer skills you need to succeed in today's workplace. You'll discover practical applications for email, word processors, spreadsheets, and databases, gaining a working foundation for the critical computer skills you need to survive in the modern job market.

Effective Business Writing
Instructor: Ann Linquist

Do you have a nagging suspicion that a small improvement in your writing skills might also improve your career prospects? Here’s how to fill in those gaps in your business writing skills so you can reach your full potential. You may be a clerical worker, an engineer, or an executive. If you communicate with others in writing, you need this course to help you identify and eliminate problem areas. By the end of this course, you'll know the secret to developing powerful written documents-including e-mail-that immediately draw readers in and motivate them to do what you want.

Administrative Assistant Fundamentals
Instructor: Becky and Tony Swaim

Rapid growth in the health, legal services, data processing, management, public relations, and other industries have created many new job opportunities for administrative assistants. This course will help you discover and master the essentials of managerial and staff support, information and records management, communications technology, travel and meeting coordination, space planning, and office ergonomics. You'll become an indispensable member of your team by identifying opportunities and implementing solutions to turn your office into a high productivity machine. This course may help you prepare for the internationally recognized Certified Professional Secretary (CPS) and Certified Administrative Professional (CAP) exams offered by the International Association of Administrative Professionals.

Mastery of Business Fundamentals
Instructor: Tony Swaim

Are you interested in acquiring practical business experience in strategic planning, management, and finance without enrolling in an MBA program? This course is for you! You'll understand the significance of strategic planning and discover how external and internal environmental factors affect an organization. You'll learn about various organizational structures and determine how to use leadership, motivation, and control for maximum impact. You'll master the fundamentals of accounting and increase your knowledge about key financial terms, cash flow management, financial statements, and cost control. You'll also discover various financial investment models and you'll learn the basics of financial planning and budgeting methods. You'll even understand the basic principles of business law, contracts, and the principal-agency relationship.

Get Assertive!
Instructor: Vivian Harte

Are you tired of being intimidated and treated badly by others? Get the assertiveness training you need in order to be more confident and powerful with family members, friends, bosses, co-workers, professionals, service people, and even total strangers. Discover how you lose your power when you talk and what you can do to get it back. Learn how to deal with anger and criticism effectively. It's your turn to speak out!

Leadership
Instructor: Lynne Morton

Leadership skills can help you gain the respect and admiration of others, while also allowing you to enjoy success in your career and more control over your destiny. Contrary to popular belief, leadership skills can be learned and developed. Even if you don't hold a leadership position, this course will teach you how to use the principles of great leaders to achieve success in almost every aspect of your daily life.

Individual Excellence
Instructor: Becky and Tony Swaim

Master twelve career-enhancing skills including goal setting, time management, personal organization, and creativity.

Everyday Math
Instructor: Ivy Bishop

Ever find math baffling? This course can help you gain confidence in your basic math skills so you can start using math to your advantage. You won't find any theory or memorization here. Each of your lessons will be filled with practical exercises and information that you can put to immediate use. You'll get valuable hands-on experience and advice on using a calculator; determining the proper amount to pay in tips, discounts, and taxes; managing your income and expenses; checking your bills and bank statements for errors and overcharges; comparing investment vehicles; shopping for the best loans; buying a home; determining the right amount of paint, carpet, or tile for your next home improvement project; converting from one type of currency to another; calculating the chances that something will happen; interpreting a graph; comparing test results; understanding a statistical survey; and more.

Skills for Making Great Decisions
Instructor: Donna Brown

Learn how to make excellent everyday decisions from an experienced counselor and life coach. Master techniques for achieving your goals, managing risk, dealing with crises, and making decisions--big and small--with knowledge and confidence. Find out how to avoid many types of mistakes and how to recover from others.

Building Teams That Work
Instructor: Vivian Harte

Teams are becoming a staple in today's workplace. In this course, you'll learn the components of a successful team and the stages of its development. You'll master the skills you'll need to effectively manage projects, make decisions, and solve problems in a team setting. Plus, you'll have a chance to learn the pitfalls of unhealthy group interaction and minimize any of its effects on your team.

Become a Physical Therapy Aide
Instructor: Holly Trimble

Prepare for a rewarding career as a valued member of the physical therapy team while learning all about the human body, specific disorders, and the way physical therapists treat these disorders. You'll get training in physical therapy terminology and communication skills. And by the end of the course, you'll know the legal and ethical issues that are becoming increasingly important for every physical therapy aide to understand.

Become an Optical Assistant
Instructor: Beverly Smith

If you think you'd like to become an optical assistant, this is the course for you! You'll get a comprehensive look into the world of optical assisting—a world that's getting more exciting all the time. You'll see how rewarding it can be to help people solve their vision problems. And you'll find out how varied the field of optometry is becoming as we explore the skills it requires and the different settings to which this new career might lead you.

Making Age an Asset in Your Job Search
Instructor: Linda Gravett

This course, based on research and programs developed by AARP, is a guide for older workers looking to make a career change, find employment opportunities, or learn strategies that give them the best chance of getting hired. You'll discover how you can capitalize on your age and experience as you reposition yourself in today's workplace. You'll find out how to use the AARP Foundation's exciting new interest and skills-assessment tool, WorkSearch. By the end of the course, you'll have completed a self-assessment so you'll know what kind of job is most suited to you, developed a résumé and cover letter, and prepared for that all-important interview.

Homeschool With Success
Instructor: Beverly Schulz

Discover what you need to know to homeschool your children successfully. You'll find out how to research legal requirements, choose the best curriculum, organize your school day, provide great socialization opportunities, and make the most of raising your children. When you finish this course, you'll have lots of information and guidance to plot your homeschooling course for years to come!

Teaching ESL/EFL Grammar
Instructor: Diane Larsen-Freeman

Do you feel confident enough with your knowledge of English grammar to teach grammar to ESL/EFL students? In this course, you'll learn about the importance of teaching grammar to EFL and ESL students and develop a greater appreciation for the rules of grammar. Get ready to discover new teaching methods that will both engage and challenge your students!

Teaching ESL/EFL Vocabulary
Instructor: Paul Nation

Do you know what the different types of vocabulary are and which ones your students most need to learn when you're teaching ESL? In this course, you'll discover how to determine what kinds of vocabulary to have your students focus on and how to help them learn it in the most effective ways. Teaching vocabulary across the four strands of meaning-focused input (listening and reading), meaning-focused output (speaking and writing), deliberate learning strategies, and fluency development is essential. You'll also explore how you can work with vocabulary in content-based instruction and see how to monitor your students' learning. By the end of this course, you'll understand what makes a well-balanced vocabulary course and how to plan one.