Inadvertently (or subconsciously), the idea for this blog has been brewing for a while – longer than I actually realised.

On Monday, January 12, I start the first of two free massive-open-online courses (MOOCs), offered from a university in the USA (it’s actually in The Netherlands), called “Introduction to Nutrition – Food for Health”. It runs for 8 weeks and here is the course blurb – “NUTR101x is a general nutrition course that addresses the relation between nutrition and human health with a focus on overnutrition.”

I found the course months ago on www.edx.org, and this website came into my world through the blog http://www.andthenwesaved.com. Anna from And Then We Saved put together a list of places to get a free online education and kindly offered it up to her readers. Here is her post. Thanks, Anna, for the inspiration! Without you, I may never have found out about this.

Nutrition isn’t something I’ve ever thought of studying, I really had no interest in it before. But for some reason, now, I’m very keen to understand what powers us through the day. If you would like to read more information about the course you can find it here.

The second course I’ll be doing, starting February 25, is another edX course called “Body101 – The Body Matters”. It focuses on exercise and what it does to your body. Here’s the official blurb – “This course examines the benefits of physical activity, how to prevent injuries, and what to do when injuries occur. The course will include content from leading international experts in multiple fields related to the science of exercise.”

You can sign up for it here, too, if you like …

It’s time to get my brain working again and these two courses fit very nicely into my fitfor15in15 challenge. I haven’t worked in Switzerland since moving here just over three years ago. The first 18 months were spent learning German and doing the B2 Level exam. For the past 18 months, I’ve been a bit rudderless – uninspired, wasting time and reading loads of other people’s blogs but never quite managing to find the enthusiasm to start anything of my own.

I’m not allowed to work here because there are no international work agreements between Switzerland and Australia. Non-EU (European Union) people have to wait five years before they can apply for a working visa. There is a possible work option to start work before the five years is up, but it’s incredibly hard to prove – that I would be the only person in the EU capable of doing a particular job. The hiring company would have to go through months of red tape with immigration in order to make it a reality, and that’s a huge deterrent! Television is where I have worked in the past, and there are many EU television professionals who would be chosen before me.

Hence, I had to drag myself out of these idle doldrums somehow. I’ve always been a keen student learner, so I figured doing a free online course or two could be the way to go. What do you think? I have no idea of their quality or what’s expected from me, but it’s worth a shot.

Have you ever done an online course before, and did you like it? Was it harder than you thought it would be?