I am embarking on another MOOC, a massive open on-line course; these courses are wonderful – they are free and in just about every subject you could possibly think of. I have complete courses on archaeology and Shakespeare’s world, and started but not yet finished others such as climate change and modern European languages. There are several sites which offer these, such as FutureLearn and Coursera, the courses themselves delivered by universities from across the world.
I have just started ‘Identifying the Dead’ from the University of Dundee; it is about forensic anthropology, and although I guess many ‘students’ will be interested in the criminal investigation aspect of it, I’m interested from an archaeological point of view – because these principles of identifying victims of accident, crime or disaster are similar to those used for much older human remains. I’m also interested from a writing point of view, and I am sure what I learn over the next few weeks will inform what I write – not that I will necessarily be writing about murder or unexplained death.
On of the enjoyable aspects of these courses is the interaction with other students, making comments, discussing what we have been looking at and finding out about, and learning how others from different backgrounds or cultures have different views of things.
The course has entered its second week, but I’m sure it’s not too late to join!
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/identifying-the-dead
https://www.futurelearn.com/about
https://www.coursera.org/about/
Lois Elsden 