If you’re thinking about taking a community college course for fun, here are some key considerations and also recommendations for classes to consider.
Key Takeaways
One of the great things about community college is that you can take a single course by itself. This opens up a lot of opportunities for flexible learning and for exploring areas that might interest you.
And with the cheap tuition prices from a community college, it makes it possible to simply take a course for fun with little financial hit or risk.
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Key considerations for taking a community college course for fun
Go with your passion
If you’re taking a community college course “for fun,” you’re going to need extra motivation to see it through.
If you don’t have a passion or deep interest for the space, that makes it really difficult once you get several weeks into the course.
As soon as all of those assignments start to add up and deadlines approach you might start feeling the pressure and be tempted to call it quits.
So make sure that you are choosing a course where you feel passionate about the area, even if you simply might be going through a “phase” of interest.
One easy way to test your passion is to simply put off taking the course for a couple of months. If the course still sounds appealing after putting the idea on the shelf for so long, that’s a good sign that you’ll stick with it.
Cast a wide net
When you think of community college, you probably think about taking a course from your local community college, which may only be about a 10 or 15 minute drive from your home.
That can be a great option if you want to take your course in person but it’s not necessary to limit your options geographically.
More and more community colleges are offering courses online that are available to students everywhere.
This means you now have a cost effective way of building your skills and knowledge no matter where the school is located.
You can find these courses by searching the Unmudl marketplace and filtering for online courses.
Formulate your goals
If you’re planning on taking a course “for fun,” your main goal is probably not actually to just have fun.
More than likely, it is to acquire knowledge or some type of new skill. Presumably, you’ll also want to put that knowledge or skill to use in some form or fashion.
You might want it to help you start a new side business, write a book, begin a podcast, or simply take pleasure in engaging in some type of new daily or weekly practice.
Take some time to formulate your goals so that you will not be disappointed and will have some direction once you complete your course. Think about concrete ways your new skills can benefit your life.
Talk to your professor
One of the best ways to optimize your experience when taking a community college class for fun is to talk with your professor at the start of your course and let them know your intentions.
Communicate that you are not taking this class because it is required or part of any degree program but that you are intellectually curious about the space, and if you have any specific goals you can let them know about them.
This is not meant to score brownie points with the professor but it’s meant to let them know where you’re coming from.
The professor might have additional insight into the space that could help you continue to explore the topic in a more meaningful way. They also will likely be flattered that you chose their course out of all of the available options.
Remember, the course is for fun
If you enroll in a course and find yourself overwhelmed by the time commitment to the course, remember that you don’t have to take this course.
At a certain point, the stress levels impacting your personal life and potentially your job just won’t be worth it.
If things are really getting tough, consider dropping the course if you can meet the drop deadline or withdrawing if you want to avoid a failing grade.
There’s also the option of taking an incomplete and perhaps finishing the course the next semester when things settle down.
Recommendations for taking community college courses for fun:
Excel
You might be a casual user of Excel and feel like you have a good grasp on the software. But it’s not until you take a deeper dive that you’ll figure out just how lucrative and valuable the software can be.
Take a course like an intro to excel to learn the foundation and then consider other courses like intermediate excel to dive even deeper. You might be surprised to find out all of the different ways Excel can be used for business and the other many use cases.
Drone piloting
Flying a drone can be a fun and even somewhat therapeutic experience. The photographs and video footage obtained from aerial views are often as breathtaking as it is eye-opening.
Consider taking a drone piloting class from a Certified Flight Instructor to learn drone piloting skills.
You’ll have the opportunity to pick up on things like flight regulations, weather effects on unmanned aircraft, emergency procedures, radio communication, and aeronautical decision-making and judgment.
In short, you’ll be well above the average recreational drone pilot.
If you get good enough you might even be able to develop a side hustle to obtain drone footage for businesses such as real estate companies.
Craft Brewing Workshop
If you are a fan of craft beers then a course like the Craft Brewing Workshop is perfect for you.
You can get experience for things like milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, hopping, and fermentation as well as carbonation and bottling. You can even participate in brewing your own batch of beer!
If you’re just a fan of craft beer or if you’re thinking about opening up your own microbrewery, this could be the perfect type of course to jumpstart your path.
Final word
Taking a class at a community college for fun is an easy and usually pretty cheap way to expand your horizons.
You can pick up new skills and new knowledge that might be able to open up new career pathways or just enrich your life in some other way.
Unmudl is a fantastic way to find these courses and you’ll be amazed at all of the different options that will be available to you!