Many students try to improve their knowledge of the field of interest by surfing the internet or searching the library catalogue. Well, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Oxford, and most of the world’s best universities offer their full courses online FREE. These courses are very subject-specific, very well organized, and easy to follow.
Currently, Gradhopper listing more than 1200 online courses hosted by its university or EdX which is the only open-source platform. For an additional fee, EdX offers a verified certificate as well if you wish to include in your resume.
Although this article contains only 25 FREE agriculture-related courses, you will find many more courses here in agriculture, science, statistics, business management, economics.
- Fundamentals of Statistics, MIT
- Fundamental statistical knowledge with firm mathematical principals.
- Construct estimators, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing, linear, nonlinear and generalized linear models, principal component analysis, and more.
- 10-14 hours per week to cover the course in 16 weeks.
- Principles, Statistical and Computational Tools for Reproducible Science, Harvard
- Series of concepts, thought patterns, analysis, computational and statistical tools for reproducible science.
- Statistical methods, experimental design, computational tools for data analysis.
- 3-8 hours per week to cover the course in 8 weeks.
- Principles of Microeconomics, MIT
- Fundamentals of microeconomics: microeconomic concepts and analysis, supply and demand analysis, theories of the firm and individual behavior, competition and monopoly, and welfare economics.
- A complete set of lecture videos, reading assignments, MCQ questions, full set of exams and practice exams.
- Development Economics: Macroeconomics, MIT
- This course emphasizes dynamic models of growth and development: migration, modernization, and technological change; static and dynamic models of political economy; the dynamics of income distribution and institutional change; firm structure in developing countries; development, transparency, and functioning of financial markets; privatization; and banks and credit market institutions in emerging markets.
- Video lectures and notes, and assignments, problem sets with solutions are included.
- Understanding Agribusiness, Value Chains, and Consumers in Global Food Systems, University of Adelaide
- Characteristics of agri-food markets and global food system.
- The characteristics of Global Food Systems and more.
- 2-3 hours per week to cover the course in 4 weeks.
- Leadership and organizational behavior, Tecnológico de Monterrey
- This course will challenge you to develop your leadership skills and empower your strengths to adapt your behaviour to the situation.
- You will learn to design tasks for yourself and others and communicate in a credible and persuasive way.
- 5-8 hours per week to cover the course in 4 weeks.
- Leadership & Management Course, Oxford
- You will learn how to define leadership role from an organizational perspective and the difference between management and leadership.
- Hard and soft skills to create effective leader, influence strategies, ethics, leadership practices and more.
- Course length is 20 hours.
- Introduction to Project Management, University of Adelaide
- Principles of project management and application in your own work and life.
- You will learn core knowledge and applied skills in project management, essential communication skills to manage a project.
- 2-3 hours per week to cover the course in 6 weeks.
- Principles of Biochemistry, Harvard
- You will learn the structure and function of the chemical building blocks of life.
- Protein structures, enzymes, metabolism and more.
- 4-6 hours per week to cover the course in 15 weeks.
- Basic Analytical Chemistry, The University of Tokyo
- A basic background in the chemical principles, a wide range of techniques laboratory skills in analytical chemistry.
- Chemical and analytical tools, statistical analysis, chemical equilibrium, sample preparation and more.
- 3-4 hours per week to cover the course in 6 weeks.
- Nutrition and Health: Food Risks, Wageningen University & Research
- You will learn food hazards, microbiological and taxological risk analysis and ways to reduce hazards in food.
- 6-8 hours per week to cover the course in 8 weeks.
- Fundamentals of Biology, MIT
- Basic principles of molecular biology, genetics, and recombinant DNA, biochemistry.
- Includes video lectures, interactive assignments, problem sets with solutions, exam and solutions and more.
- DNA: Biology’s Genetic Code, Rice University
- Structure, replication, amplifying of DNA and much more.
- The course contains video lectures, research articles, case studies, and molecular models to convey information.
- 4-6 hours per week to cover the course in 6 weeks.
- Environmental Microbiology, MIT
- Introduction to the diverse roles of microorganisms in natural and artificial environments.
- This covers cellular architecture, energetics, and growth; evolution and gene flow; population and community dynamics; water and soil microbiology; biogeochemical cycling; and microorganisms in biodeterioration and bioremediation and more.
- Complete lecture notes.
- Sustainable Soil Management: Soil for life, Wageningen University & Research
- Importance of soil, threats and protection of natural recourses.
- You will learn sustainable soil management, soil formation, functions and basics of soil degradation, soil water relations, soil fertility and biodiversity, erosion and more.
- 8-10 hours per week to cover the course in 7 weeks.
- Advanced Soil Mechanics, MIT
- Application of principles of soil mechanics.
- You will learn the origin and nature of soils, soil classification, laboratory and field methods for evaluation of soil properties, and more.
- Complete lecture notes included.
- Nitrogen: A Global Challenge, The University of Edinburgh
- You will learn global Nitrogen challenge and the nitrogen involvement to human civilization.
- Role of nitrogen to agriculture and food security.
- 2-3 hours per week to cover the course in 5 weeks.
- Environmental Protection and Sustainability, Israel
- You will learn basic principles of environment protection, biodiversity conservation practices, solutions for water and air pollution, opportunities for sustainability and more.
- 3-4 hours per week to cover the course in 8 weeks.
- CLASlite Classroom – Forest Monitoring, Stanford University
- This is the world’s first online course for deforestation and forest degradation mapping.
- Provides the scientific basis for each module in CLASlite and forest monitoring using Earth observing satellite data.
- Solid Waste Management, World Bank Group
- You will learn the core concepts of solid waste management, treatment and disposable options, technological solutions and more.
- 2-3 hours per week to cover the course in 6 weeks.
- Genetic Models for Animal Breeding, Wageningen University & Research
- You will learn the steps required in setting up a breeding program, main concepts in animal breeding.
- Genetic models and tools to predict breeding value of animals.
- 4-6 hours per week to cover the course in 6 weeks.
- Evaluating Animal Breeding Programs, Wageningen University & Research
- You will learn evaluating breeding programs, crossbreeding and dissemination of genetic improvement.
- Breeding programs in practice and more.
- 4-6 hours per week to cover the course in 6 weeks.
- Water on Earth: An Introduction, Queen’s University
- You will learn all component of watershed, hydrologic cycle and water budgets.
- Precipitation formation and distribution, and methods of calculating mean areal precipitation.
- 12-15 hours per week to cover the course in 4 weeks.
- Identifying Entrepreneurial Opportunities, The University System of Maryland
- You will learn to develop skills for identifying and analyzing entrepreneur ideas, mindset and motivation.
- 2-3 hours per week to cover the course in 4 weeks.
- Writing in the Sciences, Stanford University
- You will learn to become more effective writers in science.
- Good and bad writing examples, tips, authorship, peer review, format of an original manuscript and more.
