When I received an email promoting the free online course ‘Digital Promotion for Business’ from Digital Skills Scotland, I initially dismissed the idea. I mean, I already work in the field and have pretty much taught myself what I need to know so what use would that be?
Then I saw the resources were created by the Chartered Institute for Marketing, whose courses I had considered before but which usually come with a hefty price tag. Mmm, maybe there was value to be had there after all; there might be something new or relevant that I could share with colleagues. Plus since it was certificated I'd get something for my efforts.
So I registered to do the course with Edinburgh College, completed it in April 2020 and I'm really glad I did it! Since it's a subject I like, I enjoyed reading about it and the Moodle platform made the distance learning resources easy to log into whenever I had a free moment. The regular quizzes were quite a neat way to check understanding and having to go and find examples was an interesting challenge. Plus with a tutor marking your work, there was the opportunity for feedback which is usually valuable.
On the downside, it took me longer than it should have as I just completed units as and when, without committing to a particular schedule. Ideally, it would be good to set a goal to do a section per fortnight or similar - using a SMART objective ( a topic covered in the course!)
An added bonus is that with a student email you can access the odd student discount and having completed this course, I can now also work through the smart videography course, plus there may be more courses opening up in due course.
Plus, of course, you get a certificate....that's been a motivator since I was in the Brownies! Here it is to show off...
It's rather a nice certificate, don't you think? If you want your own the course is still running (link in first para) plus there are several others such as Google's Digital Garage series or LinkedIn Learning. As the old adage goes, every day’s a school day!