(Updated on 9/13/2010 @ 6:31 p.m. with correct info for classes offered by Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism.)

It’s September and kids from kindergarten to college are headed back to the classroom.

This time of year, that back-to-school feeling is hard to escape, even if you finished your formal education years ago.

So why not just go with it, and sign up for a class or two to improve your skills and help your writing business.

Here’s a list of places that offer writing or other classes online; some are open only to members, which means you’ll need to subscribe to that professional organization in order to sign up.

Knight Digital Media Center - This journalism training partnership between USC Annenberg and UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism offers some online training materials in support of the week-long on-site seminars the schools run for working journalists. Categories include reporting, audio, video, photography, and more.

Knowledgewebb – Online training site Knowledgewebb focuses on training journalists about the tech tools they need to do their jobs, and not just to work for digital publications. Subjects range from basics such as math for journalists to planning your first multimedia story to more sophisticated subjects including content management systems, databases and getting more traffic to your website or blog. To see what you’re getting for your money, Knowledgewebb offers four sample classes you can take for free, including 50 Ways to Improve Your Blog and Workflow for Online Editorial Content. Classes are available to members only. Annual subscription is $129 a year, although generous discounts are available to members of affiliate organizations such as the Society of Professional Journalists, Online News Association, ReligonWriters.com, Freelance Success and others.

Mediabistro – The virtual community for freelancers runs online and on-demand courses and webinars, and offers one of the greatest range of topics out there, including staples such as Bootcamp for Journalists and Travel Writing Boot Camp. Mediabistro has literally dozens of courses slated to start in in the next couple weeks – but don’t worry if you miss the one you want, it’s bound to repeat sometime in the not too distant future. Some online classes are under an hour, others last several hours and others span the course of several weeks. Costs vary. Subscribers to Mediabistro’s AvantGuild inner circle get discounts on classes, but classes are open to all.

News University – This e-learning program is run by Poynter Institute, the non-profit journalism training organization that also owns and publishes the St. Petersburg Times. In addition to online training, News U. also offers webinars and in-person training, and you don’t need to be a member of any particular organization to sign up. Right now, News U. is asking freelancers to participate in an online survey to come up with subjects for a series of online writing webinars the organization plans to launch in 2011; participating writers get 50 percent off registration for one webinar plus $10 off an online class on stopping writer’s block that takes place this Thursday, Sept. 16.

Online News Association – This professional organization for staff and freelance digital journalists at all kinds of publications doesn’t offer much of its own online training, though members receive discounts on classes from News U. and Knowledgewebb. However, the group plans to use some of the $75,000 in grant funding it received recently to expand its own online training. If you live in Washington D.C. or plan to be there in late October, don’t miss ONA10, the organization’s annual conference, which crams as much digital-media training into two days as you could possibly hope for. In case you need more convincing, here’s a recap from last year’s conference.

Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism – The seven-year-old business journalism training program says 9,000 writers have taken its courses. The center, physically located at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, offers a variety of live and on-demand online training – all focused on how to do a better job of covering a business beat. Upcoming webinars include: Developing Business Angles on Any Beat (Sept. 14) and Think Like Google: What You Need to Know about SEO (Oct. 19).

Writer’s Digest University – The online training branch of Writer’s Digest Magazine offers training for writes in all genres, including magazine writing, fiction, poetry and technical writing. The next sets of multi-week, online workshops begin Sept. 16 and 23. Right now anyone who signs up for a workshop gets a free WD on-demand webinar on DIY publishing.

News University, the e-learning program run by Poynter Institute, is creating a series of writing webinars and wants input from the freelance community on what they should cover.

Any writer who takes the survey will receive a 50 percent discount on any News U. writing webinar when the program launches next year – how’s that for a sweet deal?

Howard Finberg, Poynter’s director of interactive learning, reached out to WordCount to help promote participation in the survey among the freelance community, saying “This is an attempt to reach independent writers with quality training.”

I was more than happy to oblige. With more journalists working as free agents, whether by circumstance or choice, it benefits everyone when they’re as up to speed on the latest research, reporting and writing techniques as staff reporters and editors.

If you’re interested in participating in the News U. survey, you’ll find it here. Once you’ve completed the survey, you’ll receive a promo code you can use to receive a discount on the webinars when they’re available.

But wait – as they say in the TV commercials – there’s more. Finberg is also offering $10 off a News U. class on fighting writers block that takes place on Thursday, Sept. 16, at 2 p.m. Eastern. The class, which regularly costs $24.95, will be taught by Roy Peter Clark, Poynter’s vice president and senior scholar. To receive the discount, use promo code: PWRDHLP10.

Discover Your Missing Links: The Semantic Web will take place Wednesday, Jan. 28, at 2 p.m. EST. Replays will be available for anyone who can’t attend the live Webinar.

The one-hour session will be led by digital consultant and online publishing specialist Diane Burley. In it, Burley will cover:

• Tagging
• Taxonomies
• Authority files and knowledge bases
• How to use metadata to create a better user experience
• Ways to research or package stories with greater ease
• Online tools and companies that can help writers automatically tag and associate Web content

Sign up or learn more about the seminar at News University’s Website. If you’re not an ONA member and are interested in joining, annual dues are $75; find out more details here.

ONA and News University will offer additional seminars in March, May and September on Web 2.0 skills writers that can use to expand their storytelling abilities.

Here’s an option for getting that training. The Poynter Institute and News University are running a Webinar called Reporting With Video: Basics for Print Journalists on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern time. The Webinar costs $24.95.

The instructor is Regina McCombs, a Poynter faculty member. Before joining Poynter, McCombs worked as a multimedia producer at StarTribune.com in Minneapolis, and news photographer and field producer at KARE-TV in Minneapolis.

The one-hour Webinar will cover video storytelling basics, including basic techniques, how to structure a video story, editing principles and how to add sound. The Webinar will include live audio and slideshow presentation in which participants can post questions and respond to poll questions posed by the host.

To participate, you need a broadband Internet connection, Flash plug-in, version 8.0 or higher, firewall that allows port 1935 or 443, monitor with 1024 or higher resolution, speakers, Windows XP or Vista or Mac OS.

For more information or questions, contact Poynter at webinars@newsu.org.

Today: Career development for freelancers

Freelancers’ strategies for prospering in bad times – Suggestions from established freelancers with a variety of backgrounds and business plans, including tips for maintaining old clients while cultivating new ones.

Guest post: Going freelance in a down economy – Susan Johnston, a.k.a. The Urban Muse, shares how she ditched her full-time job for freelancing in this guest post.

Freelancers need to pursue grants, scholarships, fellowships – It’s hard for self-employed writers to make time to take classes, but the payoff in more interesting, better paying assignments can make it worthwhile.

Grants for women in digital media – Information on institutions that run grant programs to support women in media, who are at greater risk of dropping out of the profession than men.

News U. offers online courses and Webinars – Take classes without leaving home.

Since it started three years ago, News University had enrolled more than 51,000 journalists from around the world in its free online classes and low-cost Webinars, according to an October 2007 report.

Classes include Math for Journalists, Covering Climate Change, Telling Stories with Sound, Beat Basics and Beyond, and Get Me Rewrite: The Craft of Revision. A new free two-hour class called Beyond the Inverted Pyramid: Creating Alternative Story Forms, is currently in beta testing.

Writers who’ve taken News U. classes swear by them. Dan Ferber, an award-winning freelance writer based in Indianapolis, says a class in foreign reporting was invaluable in helping him prepare for his first international reporting trip. “The material was well organized, they made some creative use of the web, and the advice was spot on,” he says.