Online and Remote Learning

If it’s time to put your personal narratives on paper, this collegial yet challenging workshop will help you craft true stories that are rich in emotional depth and compelling to read. Working with a community of fellow memoir writers, you’ll learn how to dig deep for personal material and write with power, clarity and skill. Understand the importance of structure, voice, courage and editing. Identify and explore your most vital life stories. Get detailed feedback on your work every week. Create a portfolio of at least seven stories.

Join a community of writers from around the globe to deepen your skills in life writing. This online course explores the nature of memoir and many related genres. Whether you're writing for personal satisfaction or publication, you'll learn how to channel your life experiences and memories into your own voice and style. Discover your emotional truth and hone your craft through course readings, exercises and the thought-provoking participation of a guest writer. Understand how to turn your life experiences into engaging stories. Unlock personal memories as material for essays, memoirs and fiction. Find your own storytelling voice, style and point of view. Emerge with a few pieces of finished writing - and dozens of ideas for future stories.

If you are a Spanish-speaking aspiring creative writer, this course will help you work on a narrative project at any level. You'll learn about basic elements of fiction writing, such as plot and character, and meet a wider community of writers working in Spanish. The course is taught in Spanish by award-winning Mexican-Canadian author Martha Bátiz, whose work has been published in Canada, Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Peru. Este curso se ofrece en exclusiva en la Universidad de Toronto para brindar a los interesados la oportunidad de aprender y poner en práctica las diferentes herramientas y elementos necesarios para la creación de un texto literario. Se tendrá la oportunidad de realizar ejercicios enfocados hacia los diferentes temas a tratar durante cada clase, a la vez que se leerán y analizarán los textos que forman parte del proyecto individual de cada estudiante, proporcionando así al autor una experiencia integral de “taller literario,” con crítica siempre constructiva, seria y profesional. No es necesario tener experiencia previa como escritor para participar en el curso. Requisitos: Escribir y hablar español con fluidez. Presentar como proyecto un texto a desarrollar a lo largo del curso (novela o cuentos). Understand the fundamental elements of writing fiction, such as plot and character. Acquire techniques for developing a range of narrative styles.

When you recommend an idea to an organization you need to back it up with logic. If you're a manager or emerging leader with inspiring ideas, you need persuasive, fact-based arguments to address any questions, rational or emotional, that might arise when you present your ideas. This course will help you sell your strategic and operational recommendations to management, using persuasive and compelling communications including business cases, risk assessments and cost-benefit analyses. Determine and convey the real underlying purpose of a recommendation. Demonstrate the cost-benefit advantages of your recommendation over other options. Use risk assessment to confirm your recommendation. Link your business case to the strategic direction of your organization. Communicate and sell your recommendations effectively.

This course will teach you how to analyze the inner workings of any enterprise and present an unbiased and independent evaluation of its financial statements. You'll learn about the concept, theory and practice of auditing, its scope and planning, decision-making, legal and ethical requirements, the evaluation of internal controls, risk and materiality. The course also covers audit-test documentation, business-cycle audits, statistical and non-statistical sampling of evidence, the application of audit judgment against available evidence and auditing in an electronic environment. Learn audit procedures for revenue, receivables and collection, payment and investment cycles.Discover how to define, discuss and resolve ethical dilemmas in accounting.Understand professional practice and quality-control standards. Become familiar with the audit-risk model and its importance in developing an audit strategy. Learn about internal controls and how to evaluate them.Enhance your professional judgment when completing audits and issuing final audit reports.

Internal auditing is independent, objective assurance designed to improve and add value to an organization's operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance. This course teaches how to apply the phases of internal auditing methodology - annual universe, planning, execution, reporting and follow-up. It also highlights the soft skills required to meet and exceed multiple stakeholder expectations - communication, presentation and negotiation skills. Understand the internal audit function, its roles and responsibilities and the value auditing services provide to senior management and the audit committee. Know how internal audit relates to the other pillars of corporate governance. Be introduced to the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), its code of ethics and other authoritative guidance. Improve your prospects for success when taking the IIA Certification exam.

This course addresses technology risk assessment and IT audit from the perspective of an internal auditor. You'll learn how to plan and prioritize IT audit-related work and how to identify and evaluate technology risk from a variety of perspectives. This course also covers auditing applications and IT control frameworks; emerging technology and its impact on business and audit risk; IT governance; preparing audit programs and effective communication of results; and internal controls in an IT environment. Develop a basic IT audit plan using available resources and reference material. Understand the basis of technology risk assessment and how technology risk and audit risk are related, and be able to apply this knowledge to cyclical audit planning. Understand how to conduct IT audits of programs, web applications, databases and system development. Use common IT audit and computer security frameworks to assess risk. Adapt audit methods based on actual technology in use. Communicate results, determine follow-up and monitor outcomes.

Conflict is inevitable in business. Rather than seeing it as a negative, organizations and individuals can gain a competitive advantage by managing conflict well and using it as a catalyst for positive change. If you want to manage conflict more effectively in your organization, this course is for you. You'll analyze conflict through five different perspectives, explore best practices in communication, use interest-based negotiation and mediation and learn classic resolution theory. The sessions are highly interactive, using group exercises and role-playing that draws on the experience of the participants and the instructor's work in this area. Improve your understanding of and approach to conflict management. Gain more experience with tools for conflict analysis and conflict management. Optimize your interaction and presence in a conflict. Understand best practices in conflict communication. Respond effectively to conflict in different settings.

Generate ideas and unearth your fictional, mythical and true-life stories waiting to be told. This workshop-based 20-hour course will help you complete drafts and revisions to the fiction or non-fiction prose or poetry that you want to write. No need to have a manuscript in hand to start. Weekly exercises, along with assignments and in-class work will inspire you to write poems, memoirs and stories, and to work with these stories to revise into work that will reward your reader. Identify and shape the stories you want to tell. Organize and revise your ideas into readable prose. Develop your skills of revision and active listening to find and amplify the parts of your writing that resonate with readers

If you're a business professional who would like to polish your leadership and presentation skills, this course is for you. You'll learn how to convey credibility and authenticity and how to structure and deliver a clear message using eye contact and body language. Learn how to run a productive meeting, lead a discussion and create persuasive presentations - and get constructive feedback on your recorded performance. This is a timely course if you've recently earned a professional designation, graduated from a program or been promoted. Present yourself professionally, credibly and authentically. Communicate for maximum impact. Use persuasive strategies to convince decision-makers. Convey leadership presence and deliver content with confidence. Speak with authority as you monitor, mentor and motivate.