I’ve just completed a brilliant and informative course by OnLine Training on Autism Spectrum Disorders this week.

If you’ve not come cross OnLine Training, they provide a range of professional development SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) courses for teachers and teaching assistants. Their courses are completely online and cover a range of SEND including dyslexia, hearing impairment, visual impairment, speech language and communication needs and Autism Spectrum Disorders. See a full list of their courses here.

What did I like about the Autism Spectrum Disorder Course?

• Completely Online– Whilst I appreciate the benefits of face-to-face and in-practise courses, they aren’t always practical to fit around work and/ family life. I loved that I could complete this course as and when I had free time, be in on an evening at my computer or on my phone on the train. There was no hassle of booking time to complete it, no travel and I could dip in and out of it when I had the time.

• Engaging– I found the course content to be interesting and the format engaging and varied. Despite believing that my understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorders was quite good before completing the course (from working with autistic children, being a SENDCO and completing the NASENCO qualification) I still feel I learnt a lot and benefited from the course tremendously. The course is split up into four main sections covering understanding, assessments, interventions and case studies.

• Accessible– For those daunted by online learning I can report that the site is very easy to navigate and has helpful features such as bookmarking your place and reminding you what you’ve got left to complete. I found the support from my designated Tutor, via the online messaging on their website, extremely helpful and it’s clear their tutors are dedicated to supporting professionals completing the course.

• Catered for Different Learning Styles- Like the children we teach, we too learn in different ways. OnLine Training use a whole range of different teaching mediums from videos, mind maps, written text, images etc to ensure that everyone’s preferred learning style is catered for. Not only that, but by having such a range of different methods, the course is more engaging.

Find out more about this course and the other courses they provide on OnLine Training’s website here.

*Please note I was provided with complimentary access to this course in order to complete the review. All words and opinions are my own.