The Prevalence of Prescription Opioid Misuse: Doctor Shopping, Co-ingestion, and Exposure, an online class

Do you need more information on the prescription opioid epidemic? Then this free online class by NIDA Notes and IRETA 2 might be of interest. You can read more about it on the IRETA website.

This self-paced online course covers three important aspects of prescription opioid misuse. The three sections will introduce you to prescription opioids, the link between multiple doctors and opportunities for misuse, and the prevalence of high-risk use among adolescents (including mixing pills with other drugs).

Continuing Education Credits are available:
NAADAC Approved for 2 CEHs (FREE)
PA CADC Approved for 2 CEUs (FREE)
Social Work Approved for 2 CEUs ($10.00)

Free membership to myIRETA, the Institute for Research, Education & Training in Addictions’ collaboration and online learning portal is required.


Professional Development: Making Sense of Climate Science Denial

Have you ever wondered how to respond to misinformation around climate change? Do you want to learn more about the science behind climate change? If so, then you might want to take this free online course offered by edX.

In public discussions, climate change is a highly controversial topic. However, in the scientific community, there is little controversy with 97% of climate scientists concluding humans are causing global warming.

This course examines the science of climate science denial. Why is there such a gap between many in the public and scientists? What are the psychological and social drivers behind the denial of climate change?

You will look at the most common climate myths from “global warming stopped in 1998” to “global warming is caused by the sun” to “climate impacts are nothing to worry about.”

You’ll find out what lessons are to be learnt from past climate change as well come to a better understanding of how climate models predict future climate impacts. You’ll learn both the science of climate change and the techniques used to distort the science.

With every myth that is debunked, you’ll learn the critical thinking needed to identify the fallacies associated with the myth. Finally, armed with all this knowledge, you’ll learn the psychology of misinformation. This will equip you to effectively respond to climate misinformation and debunk myths.

Course length: 7 weeks
Time involved: 2 – 4 hours/week
Price: Free, with a Verified Certificate available for $49
Institution: University of Queensland, Australia
Instructors: A baker’s dozen from the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia

Registration is available online here.


Professional Development: Data Visualization for All

Want to learn how to tell your story and show it with data? This data visualization course will teach you how to design interactive charts and customized maps to illustrate your work.

You’ll start off with easy-to-learn tools, then gradually work our way up to editing open-source code templates with GitHub. You’ll follow step-by-step tutorials with video screencasts, and share your work for feedback on the web. You’ll see real-world examples drawn from Trinity College students working with community organizations in the City of Hartford, Connecticut.

This course is suitable for non-profit organizations, small business owners, local governments, journalists, academics, or anyone who wants to tell their story and show the data. No prior experience is required.

Begins on: Feb 28
Length: 6 weeks
Time involved: 3 hours/week
Price: Free, with a Verified Certificate available for $49
Institution: Trinity college (Hartford, CT)

You can register online for this class here.


Discovering Toxnet (and other NLM environmental health databases)

Would you like to learn how to search more effectively in TOXNET and the other National Library of Medicine’s environmental health databases? Then this free online class might be of interest to you!

You will explore these databases through videos, guided hands-on tutorials, and discovery exercises in your time with this class. TOXNET is a web-based system of databases covering hazardous chemicals, environmental health, toxic releases, chemical nomenclature, poisoning, risk assessment, regulations plus occupational safety and health.

The class is taught online in thirteen independent modules. You may choose to solely take the half hour Introduction to TOXNET, which is the only required module. The other 12 are optional. The modules cover TOXLINE, ChemIDplus, TRI, TOXMAP, Hazardous Substances Data Bank, IRIS, Haz-Map, LactMed, WISER, CHEMM, and REMM. Not sure what these are? You can see a description of each of these databases online.

You will work at your own pace. Instructors will be available to answer questions via email and provide assistance throughout the course.

When: March 1 – March 31


Professional Development: Statistical Reasoning for Public Health 1: Estimation, Inference, & Interpretation

Do you work with statistics as part of your job? Could you use a refresher on some of the most commonly used methods from basic statistics? Want it with a public health lens? Then this course might be of interest to you!

In this class, you’ll learn about continuous data measures, normal distribution, binary data, time to event (survival) data, sampling distribution, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. This course was created by Johns Hopkins University. It’s taught by John McGready, PhD, an Associate Scientist in Biostatistics at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University.

Dates: Sep 26-Nov 27 (8 weeks of study)
Time needed: 2-3 hours/week
Cost: Free; with a Course Certificate available for $49

You can find out more about this course by going here.


Free online course: InScribe: Palaeography learning materials

The Institute of Historical Research is offering a free online course on paleography, aimed at helping scholars interested in improving their ability to read and understand medieval documents and books. The topics covered include general palaeography, the history of medieval scripts, diplomatic, codicology and illumination.
 
Other free online courses from the Institute of Historical Research: http://www.history.ac.uk/research-training/browse/online