The internet is a vast resource for pretty much everything and MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) are on their way to becoming a democratizing force. Who cares if you don’t get a diploma at the end of it, at the end of the day it matters whether or not you’re good at something, are knowledgeable and are an expert at something being able to get the job done in a competent manner. I have two degrees, 80% of what I learned didn’t help me in my professional life, I wish there was a way to design my own learning and make every course I took count, MOOCs might do just that. MOOCs will be a world of opportunity to motivated individuals around the globe that want to reach for the stars but aren’t privileged enough to afford a college education or even just basic education. Hurrah to the Internet an empowering force! Education that will empower and improve the lives and communities of many around the globe.
There may be others out there who just belong to the crowd of people that are curious by nature and just want to keep learning, it keeps your brain cells active and young too, browse through the free courses found on these sites and see if you find one that piques your interest.
uopeople.org
University of the People (UoPeople) is the world’s first non-profit, tuition-free online academic institution that awards degrees. It is dedicated to making higher education accessible for all qualified individuals, despite financial, geographic or societal constraints.
“Founded in 2009 UoPeople is affiliated with the United Nations GAID, the Clinton Global Initiative, and Yale Law School ISP. UoPeople has signed collaborative partnership agreements with New York University (NYU) to accept students; Microsoft for scholarships, internships and mentoring and with Hewlett-Packard (HP), through the Catalyst Initiative, to provide student internship opportunities. UoPeople offers undergraduate programs in Business Administration and Computer Science. To date, more than 1500 students from 137 countries have been admitted. Of students polled consecutively each term, 95% would recommend UoPeople to a peer. With its tuition-free online programs, University of the People is opening access to higher education for all those constrained, as well as building a scalable and replicable model capable of changing the very nature of higher education. The non-profit UoPeople has managed to succeed in cutting down almost the entire cost of higher education, and does not charge for tuition or books/materials. All that is asked is for students to pay a one-time application processing fee ($50) and subsequent modest examination processing fees ($100) levied per course. There are no other fees whatsoever.”
openculture.com
Ediro Dan Colman searches the web for the best free online courses, so you don’t have to and presents it at openculture.com for you
https://www.edx.org
EdX is a non-profit created by Harvard and MIT bringing the best of higher education to students around the globe. EdX offers MOOCs and interactive online classes in subjects including law, history, science, engineering, business, social sciences, computer science, public health, and artificial intelligence (AI).
academicearth.org
Academic earth believes everyone deserves access to a world class education, they offer a comprehensive collection of free online courses from the world’s top universities. They also offer an original series of thought-provoking videos designed to light your intellectual curiosity.
Coursera.org
Coursera is an education company that partners with top universities and organizations to offer courses online for free. Our technology enables our partners to teach millions of students.
http://www.mooc-list.com
For a complete list of moocs, check out http://www.mooc-list.com
Also, here’s a Scientific American article on MOOCs: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=massive-open-online-courses-transform-higher-education-and-science
March 17, 2014