How MOOCs are Helping People with Mental Health Issues!

OK so you may not know what a MOOC is; well it’s a Massive Online Open Course. By course I mean something you can learn from as in a college course. Online learning has been growing for quite a while now but things are changing. Where courses used to be the kind of thing you paid for and then sit at a certain time to watch a live lesson they are now becoming “anytime” resources that millions of people can take.

Why Is It Growing?

The bottom line here is that everyone is busy, or at least these days people like to chose what time they do things. Let’s look at TV; very few people sit down at 7pm and wait for their favourite show to start anymore. They just sky+ it or head to Netflix or Amazon and what it whenever they want. It is the same with learning, why sit down at a certain time when you can log in and watch a video lesson at 3am if you happen to be awake. Not only this but MOOC content is normally viewable on any device so rather than sitting at a computer (if you still even have a desktop) you can learn while you are on the train, or in bed…wherever suits you. So it is ultimately the flexibility of MOOCs that is causing the growth but it is also the fact that a lot of them are free…and that’s a really big deal.

What MOOC Courses Are Out There?

Well, there are thousands; you can find them for learning English online or microbiology, you can learn Engineering…you name it; you can find a course on it. Even the Open University is getting in on the act with its Open Learn courses.

What Does All This Have to Do With Mental Health?

Well, quite a bit actually. The first thing the rise of the MOOC is doing is it allows people to learn in a place they feel comfortable. This is a big step for many people suffering from severe anxiety issues, or other problems where facing the world is highly problematic. While many people helping support those with mental health will say avoidance is not the answer it is fair to say that sometimes it is OK. The idea that people can study at home in private without any direct interaction means they can progress their lives while working through and dealing with their mental health issues to a certain extent. This is something to celebrate. For those of us that continue to face problems or that have thankfully moved past a bad period, it is very liberating that we can continue to grow as a person, learn new skills and move forward without being forced into situations that could make things worse.

The second reason why MOOCs are useful for many people suffering from mental illness is that there are now a growing number of courses aimed at helping those with problems. Yes, you can now take a course at home that will help you understand and work through various issues around anxiety and more. Courses like this https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/youth-mental-health are not only designed for people suffering though. No, they are for anyone who works with young people with anxiety professionally.

Parents and Partners

There is one more brilliant things about the rise of the MOOC. If you are reading this and you suffer from depression, anxiety or something in between as many people do; how much better do you think things would be if the people close to you had a better understanding of your condition? Well, there are courses as mentioned above that are perfect for parents, teachers, friends and partners. The idea that you could inform and educate those around you on how to treat you in a better way without having to do anything yourself is a very positive thing. Let’s face it in many cases partners and parents can get frustrated, scared, worried and upset and understandably. But if there was a way to educate them and give them some understanding some of these issues would be alleviated at least partly. The free MOOC can do just that and hopefully already is in many cases.

So it is not a cure-all, and it won’t fix everything but the MOOC can certainly help give people the ability to learn and improve themselves if they are in a situation where going to college or a class is simply too much. They can also help us learn about our own conditions and how to cope with them better along with any professional help we have sought because that should be the first port of call always! But the MOOC can also help empower those people around us that may feel lost and upset and unable to help. It might just help us do a little bit better because we are not fighting to be heard or understood so much either. If nothing else, why not going a learn something for free…Mandarin anyone?

This is a collaborative post. 

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