India is currently facing the wrath of deadly Covid-19 virus and the entire country is in lockdown for about over two months now. The businesses are closed and so are courts. Right now, as we are forced to sit idle at our homes, it is the best time for law students and lawyers to hone their legal research, legal writing and analytical thinking skills. This idle time can also be utilized to learn legal subjects in the right length and even to undertake some certificate coursesthat can significantly benefit a lawyer or a law student, in understanding the law better and even provide a competitive edge in the profession. There is a plethora of websites where one can look up for such online courses. These courses can either be paid or free of cost, depending from website to website and course to course. To name a few leading websites which provide quality online courses with knowledge enriched legal material, one can take up online certificate courses at:
- Udemy: Udemy is a crucial online platform which provides over one and a half lakh online professional courses, both: certificate courses and non-certificate courses. Most of these courses are paid courses, for around 400 or 500 rupees per course. Few of the subjects that are offered on this platform are: Criminal Law, Contract Law, Business Law, Biotechnology Law, Employment Law, Law Enforcement, Intellectual Property Law, etc. One of the most subscribed courses in the domain of Law on Udemy is the Legal Research skill course for lawyers and law students, realizing the importance of legal research and legal writing skills for a lawyer. Signing up for the website is free of cost and students from over 190 countries have enrolled themselves on Udemy. Udemy is also an excellent source to earn a passive income through teaching if one possesses good knowledge and command over a subject.
- Coursera:Coursera is one of the most popular online platforms for certificate courses. Coursera provides certificate courses from renowned universities, like, The Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, University of London etc. These courses are undertaken by the professors of these esteemed institutions, which makes these courses worth one’s time to attend and the fact that how much will this activity add to the knowledge of ones who will attend these courses cannot be doubted. At Coursera, the enrolment for most of the courses is free of cost and the deadlines are also flexible, thereby making these courses easily accessible to all. Not only certificate courses, but degreecourses are also available on Coursera. The time that is available right now can very well be utilized for learning new legal skills and further strengthening the understanding of the law.
- EdX: Another useful online resource for lawyers to undertake courses and certification is EdX. Unlike most other online learning platforms, EdX operates on the lenient scheme of delivering courses at ‘self-pace’, which helps one understand the concepts and progress forward according to their own speed, avoiding the rush and pace to learn and understand. Renowned universities like Harvard University offer courses on EDX and the professors undertaking the courses are the experts of the subjects. Most of the courses are available free of cost, but to receive verified certification, the fees would vary from course to course.
These are few of the sites one can use to learn various concepts of law, in addition to enrolling for certificate courses. There are various other websites which offer these services like Khan Academy, Udacity, FutureLearn etc. Learning legal research and legal writing and drafting skills from these platforms canhelpAdvocates and service students tremendously and this knowledge can take them forward a long way, both, academically and also professionally.
-Anmol Goswami
