Online Courses—a few of the details

Learning bytes is a catalogue of online learning materials available to learners through Skillnet, the LearnDirect Scotland learning management system (LMS).  The system tracks learner progress, recording time spent on a course and the scores achieved on any assessed materials.

There are more than 500 topics, covering a wide range of interests and skills, from short overviews on dealing with debt, using the internet, professional courses on business management and office software, to work-related learning for industries such as construction, hospitality and care.

Each course includes a short description on what’s involved, the estimated time it will take to complete and a suggested user level (beginner, intermediate or advanced).

Some of these courses have been grouped into clusters and qualify for ILA (Individual Learning Accounts) Scotland funding, making them available from only £10.

Types of courses available online are:

Business Skills

Whether you want to get ahead in business or start your own company you should find a course here that will help you to develop the skills you need. There are many courses available under the following headings:

Communication

Customer Service

Finance

Health & Safety

Legislation

People Management

Project Management

Sales & Marketing

Core Skills

This section includes courses that will help you improve or develop skills in day-to-day things like reading, writing and working with numbers.  You'll find courses that will help you work and communicate with other people as well as plan personal goals and creatively.

Communication & Numeracy

Problem Solving

Working with Others

E-Learning Tasters

This section is made up of some short, fun courses on popular interest topics, giving you a flavour of how computer based learning can work.  Most of them have a fun aspect where you learn through quizzes or games.

IT Skills

These courses cover a huge range of things you can do on your computer.  You could develop the basic skills, master word processing and spreadsheet software that might help you at work or learn how to edit your photos or music collection at home.  There are many courses which come under the following headings:

Life Skills

This section is about things that affect your everyday life, from dealing with debt to developing your career and improving your communication skills they can help you overcome barriers you may face day to day.  Courses come under the following headings:

Day to Day

Employability & Personal Development      

Sector Skills

From agriculture to construction to tourism, if you work in a particular industry sector, or you would like to, these courses could help.  They cover a variety of topics including budgeting, health & safety and hygiene from an industry-specific angle e.g.

Agriculture

Environment 

Care

Construction & Engineering

Hospitality & Catering

Tourism        

Clusters

Each cluster normally consists of a few related online courses available in the catalogue.  Clustered courses have been approved for ILA funding, and could be available from as little as £10.