Online Social Science Courses & Certifications

The World Bank states that Africa’s working-age population is likely to increase by almost 70% by 2035. However, to achieve sustainable development, industrialisation is crucial to create jobs. While rapid manufacturing has been beneficial for east Asian countries, will it be useful for Africa? Industrial Policy in the 21st Century: The Challenge for Africa online course explores this and many other questions related to Africa’s industrialisation policy requirements. 

The Industrial Policy in the 21st Century: The Challenge for Africa course surveys various ways to promote economic growth in Africa. The prime focus will be on ‘industries without smokestacks’, an industrial policy that encourages industry growth and economic development in Africa, foregoing the manufacturing policies. 

Industrial Policy in the 21st Century: The Challenge for Africa is a four-week online course. However, you can learn at your own speed. With a weekly effort of two to four hours, you will be able to complete the course on time. The educator for this course is John Page, a representative of the SDG Academy.  The self-paced course is free to join and access it for a limited duration. To get the certificate and unlimited access to the programme, they learners will need to pay the prescribed fee. 

Amid the rise of fake, misleading, and polarising news, and the deplorable state of mainstream media, the need of the hour is to produce trustworthy journalism. And that is just what the Journalism for Social Change certification course aims to do. You will learn about solution-based journalism, which is the practice of giving equal weightage to a problem and its solution.

By the end of the Journalism for Social Change training by edX, you will learn how to use journalism and the media as a tool to implement positive social change. You will also become an effective change agent yourself. You will study outstanding examples of solution-based journalism, focusing mostly on vulnerable children, and other issues that affect all other vulnerable and marginalised peoples.  

Your research and report during the Journalism for Social Change online course will be published over the semester, and will, in turn, have an immediate and direct impact. It can be anything - women’s rights, immigration, child exploitation, criminal justice, or poverty. This four-week programme is brought to you by the University of California, Berkeley.

The Why Religion Matters: Religious Literacy, Culture and Diversity online course helps you to explore the history of religion and why it has played an essential part in the lives of people for centuries. Most importantly, it gives you a deep dive into how religion affects political and personal decisions. In today’s world, understanding this is potent to comprehend global challenges we face involving religion. 

Furthermore, the FutureLearn Why Religion Matters: Religious Literacy, Culture and Diversity programme involves learning about religious diversity and religious literacy within societies and their traditions. The programme starts with learning why religion is essential to make sense of international conflicts and domestic policy decisions.  

Besides, the Why Religion Matters: Religious Literacy, Culture and Diversity programme by Futurelearn provides case studies to discover and explore Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, and many other indigenous religions. The curriculum not only teaches contemporary context but also brings forth the modern perspective.

How were Shakespeare's plays printed and performed four centuries ago? Why does his work still inspire us? How has Shakespeare's image changed over time? Well, the Shakespeare: Print and Performance course by FutureLearn was developed to answer these questions and more.  The programme is a four-week study into the glorious works of Shakespeare, and how it was adopted in the print and theatre medium.

The course is curated by King's College London in partnership with the British Library and Shakespeare's globe. It is designed to help you explore how Shakespeare's works continue to manifest themselves in contemporary storytelling and drama. Moreover, Shakespeare: Print and Performance online course also includes input from renowned curators, academics, publishers, theatre directors, musicians, and actors. Each of them provides their personal opinion about the global icon's early modern world works.

You will also get access to some exclusive, priceless manuscripts, made available to you by the British Library. Throughout the course, you will be engaging in scholarly discussion with the diverse learning community and will be able to draw from everyone's experiences. By opting for the “upgrade” access option of the FutureLearn Shakespeare: Print and Performance programme, you can also get a course completion certificate.

The Postcolonial Literature online programme is a free elective course offered by Swayam in partnership with IIT Kanpur. The course is aimed towards postgraduate English literature students from any college or university. The robust course syllabus involves various crucial literary texts that emerged in the 1980s by significant writers such as Raja Rao, Chinua Achebe, Joseph Conrad, Jhumpa Lahiri and some literary critics.

Furthermore, the Postcolonial Literature certification falls under the English studies and Humanities and Social Sciences categories. The elective course will run for four weeks and help you navigate some complex concepts and theories that are a part of postcolonial literature. Also, the programme is curated by IIT Kanpur and is delivered by its department of English Literature.

At the end of the Postcolonial Literature certification course, you will have a thorough understanding of postcolonial studies and the rich texts that left their literary imprints on the history of world literature.

Essence Of Hinduism teaches the two facets of Hinduism. On the one hand, there is historical Hinduism's aim to strike a balance between a worldly and spiritual way of living. The Hinduism of the Gita, the Upanishads, and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, which is the pinnacle of Ahimsa, as well as pure worship of one immanent, formless, imperishable God is the opposite one. The main virtue of ahimsa has been attempted to be rationalized away by our people as being exclusive to Sannyasis.

The Essence Of Hinduism Training explains how living things are subject to the laws of nature and vulnerable to growth and decay. The variations in the seasons have an impact on this enormous tree called life (soul), which was once one and unbreakable at the base. 

The Essence Of Hinduism Certification Course is more than just being a sacred religion that practices sacred and pure methods. It's a way of life and subsequently, it leads to personal self-realization and enlightenment.

All students get Essence Of Hinduism Certification by Amrita University or Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (AVV) 

Water, Society, and Sustainability certification is a course for one month that is held directly using the Swayam platform. The course curriculum is designed by the 2 institutions NPTEL and IIT Kharagpur to help understand the global water scenario. The world consists of a number of people who do not have access to safe and clean water. Candidates will learn about certain lessons from small-scale community water conservation practices. 

Water, Society, and Sustainability training for the course exhibits all the characteristics across technology, water, society, and science The course is located at the intersections across the water, technology, science, and society towards a sustainable future. The context is important for understanding and addressing the need for water beyond the technical, and physical attributes of the water shapes designed by the society. Also, the students will be understanding the challenges associated with water like availability, severe drought, or floods. The certificate that is showered at the end of the course modules, assignments and an examination will be supported across different commerce industries.

The media is a powerful tool for promoting social justice. The Activism and Citizen Journalism through Media programme will provide valuable information and guidance to individuals for using media to create awareness for social causes. Individuals will learn how to practise ethical and safe media practices.

Activism and Citizen Journalism through Media by edX will provide in-depth information on how to identify a newsworthy story and how to create and assess the impact it creates. It will also guide you on how to zero-in on appropriate platforms to publicise a story. This is a short-term course with a duration of four weeks.

Activism and Citizen Journalism through Media is an introductory course in Communication and requires no prerequisites to join. It is the result of a collaboration between edX and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wit University), Johannesburg. The educators consist of an experienced panel of faculty from Wits. The course also offers a verified certificate for students who successfully complete the course.

Ergonomics Workplace Analysis certification is an elective course that is introduced on Swayam by the institutes NPTEL and IIT Guwahati and is held for a 4 weeks period. The meaning of Ergonomic workplace analysis is basically a process in which the ergonomic risk factors are evaluated with the help of several validated tools. When these risk factors get identified and evaluated, people can give recommendations for minimizing the factors that foster the development of musculoskeletal disorders which are work-related. When these disorders get improved the compensation cost, employee turnover, and absenteeism. This course helps in all the above-mentioned topics.

Ergonomics Workplace Analysis training will in the process of ergonomic analysis of workplace help an ergonomist to evaluate the environment of physical work or psychosocial risk factors like genetic risk factors that can lead to the development of musculoskeletal disorder that is work-related. 

FutureLearn's Global Studies: Cultures and Organizations in International Relations course stresses the importance of global cooperation between people despite our cultural, environmental, and institutional differences. The world is wonderfully diverse, but the difference comes with conflict. This ideological conflict is discussed in the duration of this comprehensively designed course. 

In Global Studies: Cultures and Organizations in International Relations online course, learners can explore cultures and organizations worldwide and evaluate their beliefs about the 'clash of civilizations'. This online course will help examine whether the world we live in is becoming more liberal and how.

Furthermore, the Global Studies: Cultures and Organizations in International Relations certification programme is a short course that you can quickly complete in four weeks. The curriculum covers important topics, including intercultural negotiations, nationalism, tradition, conflicting ideologies, and cultural distinctions. 

Enrol in this course if you are interested in culture and global politics, and earn a certificate upon completion. 

This course entails how the promise of the Arab Spring, which meant to open up the Arabic world to the mainland, failed, and how the revolutions against despotic leaders and for popular sovereignty amounted virtually to nothing. Today, the Arab world is once again in the throes of crisis and this After the Arab Spring- Democratic Aspirations and State Failure programme in Governance and Society aims to shed light on the same.

After the Arab Spring- Democratic Aspirations and State Failure is an online course made available by Coursera and offered by the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the oldest university in Denmark with a focus on comprehensive research. This course is entirely online, and candidates can earn a shareable certificate issued by Coursera upon completion.

The syllabus consists of six different modules that are available as pre-recorded lectures by Dr. Ebrahim Afsah, one of Coursera’s top instructors. Further, every week’s module is accompanied by a suitable reading and practice exercise.