Our digital library is more than just audiobooks, homework help and Ancestry.com. It’s more than just Freegal music and Hoopla movies and Libby ebooks. We have an amazing set of databases that your library card makes available to you where ever you have internet access.
Today, let’s explore UniversalClass.
Opening the virtual classroom doors in 1999, UniversalClass remains dedicated to the mission of advancing intellectual exchange in teaching, research, and service with its technology and the belief that lifelong learning should be affordable to all people of all cultures. There are over 550 online classes free for patrons who live in Callaway or Boone Counties. The 30 topics of study range from Accounting to Writing Skills. Each class is broken up into lessons, and each lesson has videos and transcripts and extra readings and exams and more. You go at your own pace and if you wish to dive deeper, many of the lessons offer additional articles at the end of the transcript.
When you first arrive at UniversalClass you land on the login page. As a new user, your library card and pin number are required to activate your account. Once you have an account set up you log in with your email address and pin number. UniversalClass will remember what classes you have taken and how far you are in each lesson. You can jump between classes. At the end of each class, you earn a portion of a CEU (Continuing Education Unit), to use on a resume or webpage.
Let’s check out the class on cookie making, something you may be doing with your children or grandchildren this season. “How to Bake Cookies” teaches all the details, including what pans to use and how to measure flour. There are 12 lessons, each adding more than just the basics. Did you know that sugar melts at about 375 degrees and you can use that fact to test the temperature of your oven? Is it too hot or too cold?
The assignments are a mixture of tasks, including dipping cookies into melted chocolate. Yum! There are simple recipes shared in almost every lesson. In this class, many of the homework assignments involve making cookies. Anyone would enjoy that!
This class would give confidence to the beginning cookie maker who wants the encouragement of mastering each step. It would also work very well for any family who wants to learn together in the kitchen, letting the videos set the pace and make the assignments. After learning to bake cookies, a family could go on to bake pies, bread, or hold a tea party. Or train a pet, start scrapbooking or take an astrology class. There’s something for everyone at UniversalClass!
