The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a United Nations specialized organization based on information and communication technologies or ICTs. Founded in 1865, it has been 156 years since its establishment, and it is still working on developing and enhancing the technical network standards and ICTs, worldwide. ITU has been working vigorously to make the entire world an interconnected one and has as many as 76 ongoing projects in different parts of the world. To know these critical points you can take the help of itu online courses.
While the world was shut down over the outbreak of a novel virus, ITU continued with its goal of connecting all the people of the world by imparting its knowledge and information on the internet. The ITU has its website – ITU Academy – which offers courses, be it online or blended or face to face, self-paced or instructor-led, paid or free.
List of the Best ITU Online Courses and Certification Programs
For those curious to learn from the ITU experts but who cannot attend the face-to-face classes, this is a list of some of the best free ITU online courses with certificates that can help you advance your career.
1. ICT Accessibility – The Key to Inclusive Communication – ITU Academy
This free-of-cost ITU online course is available for everyone who desires to learn and know about ICT Accessibility. Expert instructors cover every aspect of it by providing a holistic approach to teaching the basics of ICT and inclusive communication. Another benefit of this course is that differently-abled people get special classes on the topic to understand it in detail. Self-paced modules along with E-certificates attract individuals to this course.
Course Highlights:
- Discover the meaning, and scope of ICT Accessibility
- Get an overview of the global Digital Inclusion policy agenda
- Identify the relevant standards, regulations, and policies of ICT Accessibility
- Understand the concept of public procurement
- Allow yourself to know the laws that approve ICT Accessibility
- Develop an understanding of the development of International ICT Accessibility
Course Duration: 8 hours
2. How to Ensure Inclusive Digital Communication During Crises and Emergency Situations – ITU Academy
The ITU Academy has offered an online course on how to ensure inclusive digital communication during crises and emergencies. As the title suggests, this course primarily focuses on inclusive digital communication during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. It has come into being through working on an agreement and supporting the UN Secretary-General Policy on Disability Inclusion and the BDT work in ICT Accessibility on digital inclusion. It is a self-paced course, and those who thoroughly go through it will receive an ITU certificate at the end.
Course Highlights:
- Understand the importance of digital communication in emergencies
- Introduce yourself to the concept of ICT Accessibility
- Focus on incorporating digital communication in times of crisis
- Strengthen your knowledge on the topic of digital inclusion
- Build capacity to enhance your knowledge of ICT Accessibility
- Learn to prepare, design, and deliver compatible digital com munition in emergencies
Course Duration: 1.5 hours
3. Introduction to Service Quality Regulation – ITU Academy
This is another self-paced ITU online course prepared and organized for encouraging people to earn about the major role of service quality in telecommunication. As this course is at an introductory level, there are no prerequisites for attending it. People who take up this course will have to appear for quizzes and assignments after going through all the material provided by the ITU. Only those who can secure at least 70% in the quizzes and assignments will receive an ITU Certificate/Badge.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the exact meaning of service quality and its system of regulation
- Establish a service quality regulation framework
- Explore the measurements of Quality of Service and Quality of Experience
- Describe the factors that influence a consumer’s behaviour and experience
- Identify all the stakeholders in the telecommunications industry
- Improve your service qualities and help consumers make informed decisions
Course Duration: Self Paced
4. An Introduction to Developing National Emergency Telecommunication Plans – ITU Academy
One of the free ITU online courses, An Introduction to Developing National Emergency Telecommunication Plans, is a very profitable course for professionals as well as non-professionals in acknowledging the significance of National Emergency Telecommunications Plans in disastrous situations. It is a self-paced course with quizzes at the end of each module. After securing 60% or more on the quiz, the participant will get an ITU certificate.
Course Highlights:
- Discover the instruments involved in making National Emergency Telecommunication Plans
- Gather information using a multi-stakeholder approach
- Develop a NETP for your own country according to its needs
- Realize the risks and challenges in the telecommunication infrastructure
- Understand and implement the recommendations on the given list of topics
- Know the international agreements, treaties and capacity building in detail
Course Duration: 3 hours 50 minutes
5. Digital Navigation – Wayfindr e-Learning
ITU has offered an of its kind online course on Audio-Based Indoor and Outdoor Network Navigation systems for Persons with Vision Impairment. This course consists of 4 modules, each divided into several subparts centring around a particular topic apart from additional reading material, interactive activities, and assessments. It provides a shareable certificate that is valid for a total number of 3 years. After that, the participants will have to attend the latest update of the module.
Course Highlights:
- Make yourself familiar with the most common types of visual impairments
- Identify the condition which makes the eyes vulnerable
- Develop an audio-based navigation system for visually impaired individuals
- Incorporate the needs of the users in designing it
- Learn the characteristics that have to be kept in mind while developing it
- Explore the approaches to orientation and mobility for people who have lost their sight
Course Duration: 40 hours
6. How to Design and Develop Online Courses – ITU Academy
This is an ITU online course, that informs and educates people interested in how to design and develop online courses. Though a course for beginners, basic computer skills are required to fully understand the concepts and design structure used in formatting an online course. This course is specifically for those who are familiar with the procedures of e-learning, and taking this course will enhance their skills. Certification is also included with video lectures and reading sources.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the current theories and methodologies in understanding the fundamentals of online course design
- Get hold of the tools involved in making online courses
- Understand and meet the requirements of the users
- See and improve the flaws and technical errors occurring in designing and executing an online course
- Explore how an e-learning platform works
- Make your online course interesting by adding videos, audio, sources and simulations
Course Duration: Self Paced
7. Measuring Digital Development: Telecommunication/ICT indicators – ITU Academy
An online self-paced course offered by the ITU, Measuring digital development: Telecommunication/ICT indicators, is a video lecture aimed to make people aware of ways to strengthen the capacity of countries to produce ICT indicators by analyzing statistics and the data recorded according to international standards and methodologies. It is a free training course with verified certification given by ITU officials. However, for attending the course, basic knowledge of telecommunication is crucial.
Course Highlights:
- Compare the existing capacity of different countries to produce ICT indicators
- Comprehend the definitions and methodologies as discussed in the modules
- Learn the technicalities of network indicators in fixed telephones and mobile-cellular
- Briefly discuss the role of Quality of Service (QoS) indicators
- Learn the art of collecting, compiling and disseminating their issues
- Explore the fixed internet and their subscriptions in detail
Course Duration: Self Paced
8. Innovation Ecosystem 101: Fundamentals on Building Competitive and Innovative ICT-Centric Ecosystems – ITU Academy
An ITU online course based on Fundamentals on building a competitive and innovative ICT-centric ecosystem, the Innovation ecosystem explores the policies and innovations occupying most of the entrepreneurial communities. Along with the videos, participants will receive reference sources and books and assignments (MCQ based) to optimize the knowledge surrounding this topic. While the learners will be attempting the quizzes after each module, in the end, they will have to retake the quiz to obtain a certificate.
Course Highlights:
- Learn to make groundbreaking technological revolutions
- Expand your horizon on the concept of a digital ecosystem
- Learn to assess and measure your country’s innovation gap
- Allow yourself to identify the stakeholders in a digital economy
- Go through case studies noted by ITU officials
- Make yourself a digital road-map to close this innovation gap
Course Duration: 5 hours
9. The Tampere Convention and Telecommunications Deployments When Disasters Strike – ITU Academy
Another ITU online self-paced course, The Tampere Convention and Telecommunications Deployments, when Disasters Strike emphasizes the importance of the Tampere Convention and its ratification. This virtual class is especially for those who aim to work in the telecommunication sector, foreign ministries and disaster management. For taking this course, there is no need to know about this convention and its historical background.
Course Highlights:
- Know what is the Tampere Convention about
- Understand the process and notions of ratification
- Acknowledge the benefits and challenges of the Tampere Convention
- Make use of the relevant UN and ITU resolutions
- Test your knowledge with the help of quizzes
- Apply a didactic approach in comprehending the concepts better
Course Duration: Self-Paced
10. FSR C&M/FCP Joint Online Course on 5G: Understanding Main Policy Challenges – FSR
Through a multidisciplinary approach, FSR C&M/FCP Joint online course on 5G: understanding main policy challenges, focuses on the most recent policy challenges on 5G. Modules weekly, with reading materials and an interactive live class, make it an enjoyable ITU course. Participants will get assignments to provide individual feedback. Those who complete this round will receive a professional certificate.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the importance of the 5G standard
- Analyze the effects of 5G on industries, economic development, and people’s lives
- Introduce yourself to the tools used to familiarize yourself with 5G
- Learn terminologies and definitions like net neutrality and network slicing
- Allow yourself to know the amount of investment needed to deploy the telecommunication systems
- Study the topic through national experience cases
Course Duration: 6 weeks
11. Practical Disaster Response: How to Develop Table Top Simulation Exercises – ITU Academy
This beginner’s online course offered by ITU targets guides the development and improvement the table-top simulation exercises, which in turn help out to assess National Emergency Telecommunications Plans. It is a self-paced course divided into five parts, explaining an aspect of practical disaster response. While the target attendants of this course are stakeholders working in disaster management, there are no requirements for registering for this course and anybody interested can sign up for it.
Course Highlights:
- Get familiar with the concept of simulations
- Identify the type and variety of simulation exercises
- Master table-top simulation exercises
- Learn the steps and conduct a simulation exercise on your own
- Discover the tools and methodology required in conducting an exercise
- Create awareness about the toolkits and templates available for running an exercise
Course Duration: 1 hour 50 minutes
12. Ransomware Analysis: File Encryption and Decryption Mechanism- ITU Academy
Ransomware Analysis: File Encryption and Decryption Mechanism is an online instructor-based course by ITU to educate people about cyberattacks happening around the world and the techniques-encryption and decryption used in it. There are no such entry requirements for this course. However, people who have little experience in computer science and IT-related software and know-how to operate the Linux Operating System are preferred.
Course Highlights:
- Get introduced to Ransomware and know it is about
- Discover the types and kinds of Ransomware
- Explore the encryption and decryption used by it
- Get familiar with the working Windows format of a file
- Learn the skills of encryption and decryption using a virtual machine
- Gain hands-on experience by applying the skills learned.
Course Duration: 2 days
13. Building an Effective Cyber Incident Response Team – ITU Academy
Creating awareness regarding the increasing incidences of cybercrime and the need to stand up and respond to such attacks is the prime concern of this ITU online course. The aim is to prepare people physically and mentally to respond to such crimes. Some basic knowledge about cybersecurity and incident response is required as it goes into much detail regarding the same. It is an intense 3-day training course which can be attended to and scheduled according to your time.
Course Highlights:
- Know the basics of incident responses and their types
- Allow yourself to know the existing framework of incident responses
- Gain a new perspective with the help of CERT
- Explore the incident response teams and how they function
- Examine the design and establishment of an incident response team
- Learn from your mistakes and develop enhancement strategies
Course Duration: 3 days
14. ICTs for Better Ageing and Livelihood in The Digital Landscape – ITU Academy
This is an ITU online course aimed at raising awareness regarding the two notions of the trend of population ageing in the microenvironment and the exponential rise in digital technologies. It is a self-paced course that allows the attendants to reschedule according to their comfort. It adopts a holistic approach toward guiding and supporting stakeholders in joining these two megatrends. No prior qualification is required, and all the necessary information is in the readable materials and video lectures.
Course Highlights:
- Define the fundamental units of building blocks of digital inclusion
- Realize the role of ICT accessibility in these megatrends
- Identify the essential elements needed for the adoption of ICTs by older persons
- Survey and recognize the challenges faced by older persons
- Find more information on digital inclusion available with the course
- Learn to develop an age-friendly environment
Course Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
15. Web Accessibility – The Cornerstone of Digital Society – ITU academy
Web Accessibility is yet another of the ITU online courses offered. Learning about the principles related to the design and development of accessible websites, this self-paced e-training course explores each and every element of Web Accessibility. This course is free of cost and gives a verified certificate upon successful completion. In addition to the videos, the course provides images, graphics, statistics, data, and much more which make this an engrossing course.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the building blocks of digital inclusion
- Examine the principles related to the design and development of accessible websites
- Recognize and acknowledge the International standards for web accessibility.
- Develop a strategy for the maintenance of accessible websites
- Understand the logic behind the web accessibility policy
- Learn how to evaluate accessible websites
Course Duration: Self Paced
