Top 12 online courses in Malaysia
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and CMCO restriction, Malaysia’s e-learning population has been growing steadily. Along with strong initiatives by the Malaysian government to digitize education, Malaysia’s online courses business is booming with the annual growth rate of 16.4%.
Here, we round up top 12 online courses that are favoured by Malaysians, ranging from online short courses to courses with professional certificates.
- 1. Basic English Courses
- 2. Professional Workplace English Courses
- 3. English for Writing Courses
- 4. Copywriting and Creative Writing Courses
- 5. Digital Marketing Courses
- 6. Graphic Design Courses
- 7. Interior Design Courses
- 8. Data Science Courses
- 9. Accountancy Courses
- 10. Nutrition Courses
- 11. Mandarin Courses
- 12. Psychology Courses
- More About MOOCs
1. Basic English Courses
English is one of the most spoken languages in Malaysia, which also means that businesses, jobs and opportunities are more likely to come around to those who speak English. It is not hard to see there’s a demand for learning the language.
Among many online English courses available, FutureLearn, Udemy, edX and Coursera provide us the options from free online courses to online courses with certificates, depending on our learning needs.
For beginners who want to learn on a conversational level, keywords and expressions, these online courses are great to start with:
Basic English 1: Elementary by King’s College London
Conversational English Skills by Tsinghua University
When it comes to the language fundamentals, let's not forget about its basic grammar rules. Below online courses will help you to master some grammatical concepts and how to apply them in your everyday situation:
Basic English 2: Pre-Intermediate by King’s College London
English Grammar and Style by The University of Queensland
2. Professional Workplace English Courses
Job seekers and professionals in Malaysia who wish to upskill their language for employability and workplace contexts, these courses will give you the skills to prepare for your job application, interviews and business networking:
English for Business Networking & Preparing to Network in English - University of Washington
For executives or managers who are looking to enhance international business relationships with clients outside of Malaysia, it is important to look for courses that goes deep on communication in diverse settings, as well as understanding on international culture, such as below:
Communicating with Diverse Audiences - University of Surrey
Professional Certificate in English for Business Networking - University of Washington
For those who are looking for online courses in Malaysia that are HRDF claimable, British Council does provide corporate online courses with certificates that will upskill your team's talent.
3. English for Writing Courses
Sending email can be quite a mundane and repetitive task during work. But do you know constructing a professional email can make the right impression? Same goes for a good business letter and resume.
Learners in Malaysia can learn about business writing techniques and how to compose a business document with maximum effectiveness with these online courses:
Writing Better Emails - British Council
Effective Business Writing - Berkeley, University of California
Business Writing Techniques - Doane U
For Malaysians who are seeking a career change abroad, especially in English speaking countries, taking a language proficiency test like IELTS is part of the process. Estimated around 2 hours and 45 minutes, you will be tested on your listening, reading, writing and speaking skills.
Here are some online courses that will prep you to take IELTS with interactive practice materials covering the four skills that will tested:
Understanding IELTS: Writing - British Council
IELTS Academic Test Preparation - The University of Queensland
4. Copywriting and Creative Writing Courses
Writing might sound like a dreaded chore to a lot of people, but do you realize how big the impact it has? Without a good writer, we wouldn’t have catchy slogans like “Just do it!” or “I’m lovin’ it!”.
A good copywriter or content writer knows how to convey a client's message by having a strategic framework on delivering effective content to the public. Hence they are always in-demand by businesses who seek for digital presence in the market.
Here are some best online writing courses for Malaysians who are considering a career switch or planning to upskill themselves:
Copywriting Essentials - British Council
Writing for Social Media - Berkeley, University of California
Strategy of Content Marketing - UCDavis
Creative writing essentially is a way to express your stories or emotions in an entertaining way, without being bound to reality. It comes in many forms such as novels, poems, screenplay, scripts, even lyrics as well. Whether you decided to pick it up as an interest or pursue it as a freelance career, these online courses will teach you the elements of creative writing:
Creative Writing Specialization - Wesleyan University
Transmedia Storytelling: Narrative Worlds, Emerging Technologies, and Global Audiences - UNSW, Australia
How to Write Your First Song - The University of Sheffield
KL Writers Workshop - KLWW
5. Digital Marketing Courses
When the COVID-19 pandemic strikes, with the MCO and CMCO restrictions, consumers have been relying on the internet more than ever. That’s why digital marketing jobs are high in-demand in Malaysia.
There are different types of digital marketing where businesses use to engage with customers, like social media marketing, influencer marketing, email marketing, SEO marketing, PPC, affiliated marketing, and many more. Depending on consumer behaviour and business needs, each type of strategy holds its own value and requires a specific skill set to execute.
If you are considering a career switch or building yourself an online presence from start, understanding the foundation of how digital economy works is necessary to succeed in e-commerce, here are some digital marketing online courses:
How to Create Great Online Content - University of Leeds
Google Ads Course for Beginners - From Zero to PPC Hero - ClickSlice
Selling Ideas: How to Influence Others, and Get Your Message to Catch On - University of Pennsylvania
Professionals who have been in the industry, seeking to upskill or elevate their knowledge, these courses dive deep into analytics tools and techniques:
Marketing Analytics: Data Tools and Techniques - University of Pennsylvania
The Ultimate SEO and Wordpress Training Course for 2021 - ClickSlice
Advanced Power Searching With Google - Google
Companies or individuals who are interested in HRDF claimable related courses, Next Academy offers quite a comprehensive online course that will guide you step-by-step based on your business idea.
6. Graphic Design Courses
One of the popular courses favoured by Malaysians, graphic design is also listed in Malaysia’s Critical Occupation List, here are some graphic design online courses that you can learn part-time to sharpen your visual skills or contribute to your freelance career:
Graphic Design Elements for Non-Designers Specialization - University of Colorado Boulder
Introduction to Typography - California Institute of the Arts
The Graphic Design Specialization by California Institute of the Arts, breaks down the topics into four bite size, short courses that cover the fundamentals of this study.
Canva, which started off as a user friendly design application, now has its own design school for beginners who have little to no experience or just anyone looking to learn the basics of design.
For individuals who are looking for more technical courses on softwares such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, Udemy has a wide range of guided online courses that will provide you with hands-on training of the software along with tips and tricks that professionals use.
7. Interior Design Courses
Another one of the popular online courses learners in Malaysia enjoy has to be interior design. Let's admit it, who doesn’t enjoy a leisure stroll in IKEA’s showroom exhibition?
Styling Essentials by ISCD covers some important skills and elements on functional interiors, furnishings and product selection that you can practice in your space.
Individuals or professionals who are seeking help in space drafting or modeling, these online interior design courses are structured to cover the functionality of AutoCAD and SketchUp. (some of commonly used software for space visualization)
AutoCAD for Design - Autodesk
3D CAD Fundamental - National Taiwan University
SketchUp: How to Start Modeling Simple 3D Objects - Coursera Project
For those who wish to understand the behind of Malaysia’s structure and design, Experiencing Malaysian Architecture by Taylor’s School of Design and Architecture explores on Malaysian Architecture and the design process behind it.
8. Data Science Courses
Labeled as one of the most sought after jobs in Malaysia, data scientists are high in-demand as they require to use different studies of computer science and complex machine learning algorithms to discover hidden patterns from the raw data, enabling companies to make better decisions and predictive analysis.
Learners in Malaysia who are interested to learn on the tools frequently used for data gathering can check out the courses below:
Introduction to Databases and SQL - Raspberry Pi Learn
Intro to SQL: Querying and Managing Data - Khan Academy
Data Science: Productivity Tools - Harvard University
Applied Data Science - Coventry University
On a lighter note, if you are just curious on how big data can transform our lives, these introductory data science courses might have the explanation:
Introduction to Data Science - IBM
Big Data Analytics: Opportunities, Challenges and the Future - Griffith University
9. Accountancy Courses
Another favourite among students in Malaysia, ACCA accounting course is one of the most studied courses in Malaysia as its qualification gives us the flexibility to work in any sector or industry or even countries.
In 2015, ACCA has partnered with edX, a top online courses platform founded by MIT and Harvard, featuring short online ACCA accounting courses with the aim to provide all learners in Malaysia the accessibility to learn new finance skills or anyone who is looking for a career in finance.
Introduction to Management Accounting - ACCA
Introduction to Bookkeeping - ACCA
Financial Accounting - ACCA
10. Nutrition Courses
In the wake of the viral COVID-19 pandemic, many now have realized the importance of eating nutritiously and keen to understand how we can eat to improve our immune system. Here are nutrition courses that will guide us on choosing the right diet and the science behind it.
Collaborate with FutureLearn, Monash University has rolled out a few online nutrition courses for learners in Malaysia, who are interested in the role of food in health and diet, as well as how to use food as medicine:
Food As Medicine
Food As Medicine: Food and Our Genome
Similarly, Taipei Medical University has also discussed on the importance of nutrition facts and labels when comes picking the right food:
Introduction to Nutrition and Food Safety
11. Mandarin Courses
In such a multicultural country like Malaysia, Mandarin is often used among other forms of Chinese language, especially formal places like schools or business events.
To master the skills of daily business communication, learners in Malaysia can advance their vocabulary and sentence structure through this certified Mandarin online course for adults:
Professional Certificate in Mandarin Communication - MandarinX
For starters, these introductory courses teach basic conversation with the correct pronunciation and tone that will help improve your Mandarin speaking skills:
Learn Chinese Pronunciation and Tone & Introduction to Chinese: Conversation - Shanghai International Studies University
Mandarin Chinese Essentials - MandarinX
12. Psychology Courses
Have you ever wondered why a simple point-and-shoot camera comes with a hundred over pages manual but there’s no single instruction given on how we can correctly utilize our complex human brain?
Perhaps psychology is the instruction manual we should all go through. Especially in MCO and CMCO, we Malaysians are vulnerable to many different mental health issues.
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust online psychology courses explore on coping with self isolation, dealing with grief and loss during COVID-19:
Social Care During COVID-19
Grief, Loss, and Dying During COVID-19
Understanding Anxiety, Depression and CBT
Learners in Malaysia who wish to obtain a psychology degree or considering a psychology job, these online courses will help you to get started by exploring the core concepts of human behaviour, history and foundation of the field of psychology:
Exploring Psychology's Core Concepts - Tsinghua University
Xseries Program in Introduction to Development, Social and Clinical Psychology - The University of Queensland Australia
Introduction to Health Psychology - University of Padova
To round it all up, here are the top 12 online courses favoured by learners in Malaysia, let us know which is your favourite by commenting down below, or if there’s other online courses that you would like us to add on?
All the best in your journey of self development!
More about the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) in this article
MOOCs provide an affordable and flexible way to learn new skills, advance your career and deliver quality educational experiences at scale. Millions of people around the world use MOOCs to learn for a variety of reasons, including: career development, changing careers, college preparations, supplemental learning, lifelong learning, corporate eLearning & training, and more. Below are brief description of some of the best MOOC platforms for your convenience.
A. Coursera
Coursera is an academic MOOC. It was founded by Stanford University professors, who developed Coursera based on their experience in computer science. This online learning platform provides degree courses including bachelor's and master's qualifications which established based on the contents of the university. Besides degree programs, they also have a workforce development product for business and government organizations.
B. EdX
edX is also a MOOC with a university system just like Coursera, founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University in May 2012. But Edx is different because it is a nonprofit organization and runs on the free Open edX open-source software platform. The courses on this online learning platform are offered by 70 schools, nonprofit organizations, and corporations. Courses provided are mainly for training purposes, especially for a company.
C. Udemy
Udemy main targeted audiences are professional working adults who wish to improve their job-related skills. This online learning platform is different from Coursera and edX because it is not an academic MOOC program. The courses in this platform do not follow the contents from any universities. But the targeted audiences are similar to edX. Udemy also mainly attracts corporate trainers. Furthermore, instructors of Udemy are allowed to build their online courses. Therefore they name themselves as course marketplace.
D. Skillshare
Skillshare main target is for those who are interested to learn from the educational video. This online learning platform is a self-paced online course. There will be no instructors to provide live interaction. Besides that, there is no certification of competency, authority, or credibility presented. Skillshare only focuses on completing projects. But the instructors of the educational video are all industry leaders who are similar to Udemy.
E. Shaw Academy
Shaw Academy mainly focuses on its live interactive online courses. They also created a personalized education platform called Phoenix which provides personalized service to their students. The courses provided in this online platform are mostly business-related topics. Students who are able to complete the course will be accredited based on the course chosen. The Shaw Academy certificate is readable across Europe because it is credit-rated to EQF level 5 by Edinburgh Napier University. EQF(European Qualification Framework) relates to different countries' national qualifications which common to the European reference framework.
Read More About: How to Choose: MOOC Sites
There are other types of online learning platforms focus on specific fields as well. For instance, languages, information technology, and early childhood. Some of these MOOCs platforms can be found in our online marketplace.