Millions people worldwide have the will but not the way in which to get a good education. Two main obstacles are the lack of funds and the lack of good universities (particularly if living in a remote area without a means of transportation.)
Have no fear: MOOCs are here! MOOCs are Massive Open Online Courses. They are free and they are online, so if you have access to a computer, you can take courses wherever you are. All you need is the motivation.
If you do not attend every class, if you get behind in the coursework, or even if you drop out, there is no penalty. What more could a student ask for, especially if you are an adult learner with a busy schedule? Well, you could ask for a diploma. That is the one drawback of MOOCs: After taking getting a free, high quality education at a top university, you don’t get a degree as proof of your accomplishments.
That may change in the future, but for now, let’s just be grateful for the opportunity of getting educated without going into massive debt with student loans.
Here are 10 great sites for MOOCs:
1. Apple’s iTunes U (2013). “Your courses. Like you’ve never been able to teach them before.” Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/education/ipad/itunes-u/
2. Carnegie Mellon University (2013). Carnegie Open Learning Initiative. Retrieved from http://oli.cmu.edu/
3. Duke University (2013). Duke offers a number of courses on ITunesU. Retrieved from http://itunes.duke.edu/
4. Harvard University (2013). Harvard Open Courses: Open learning initiative. Retrieved from http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2013). MIT Open Courseware. Retrieved from http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
6. Stanford University (2013). "OpenEdx" Retrieved from http://online.stanford.edu/openedx, “Stanford Engineering Everywhere.” Retrieved from http://see.stanford.edu/see/faq.aspx , "Stanford Online". Retrieved from http://online.stanford.edu/, and "Writing in the Sciences." Retrieved from http://online.stanford.edu/course/writing-in-the-sciences
7. Udemy Free Courses (2013). “Start learning form the worlds top instructors.” Retrieved from https://www.udemy.com/
8. University of California at Berkeley (2013). Webcast Berkeley. Retrieved from ttp://webcast.berkeley.edu
9. University of California at Los Angeles (2013). UCLA Extension. Retrieved from https://www.uclaextension.edu/pages/search.aspx?c=free+courses
10. Yale University (2013). Open Yale courses. Retrieved from http://oyc.yale.edu/
Professionally, I would recommend Stanford's OpenEdx. This data pool is being organized in collaboration with Harvard and MIT, and is very useful as a research tool.(See #6 for link.)
For all of you who are science, language or composition teachers, I would also recommend Stanford's "Writing and the Sciences" course. Learners in all disciplines, not only the sciences, can benefit from this 4-week course in improving writing skills. (See #6 for link.)
See you in class!
Reference
BDPA Detroit Chapter (2013). MOOCS: Top 10 Sites for Education With Elite Universities. Retrieved from http://www.bdpa-detroit.org/portal/index.php?Itemid=20&catid=29:education&id=57:moocs-top-10-sites-for-free-education-with-elite-universities&option=com_content&view=article
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Wow! It amazes me to see the caliber of universities offering free, OER education! As you say, there is no degree or certification involved which would be a major drawback. Motivation would be difficult to maintain, but if courses were short enough, or created in some sort of open ended forum, it might be fun and worthwhile to take one. I think the writing class from Stanford would be very worthwhile, however, as an online graduate student already my time is so limited that another course would push me over the edge! Perhaps during winter break...
ReplyDeleteActually, as a top-tier post-graduate student, you might not need the writing course. However, you might want to look at it to see if it would be something to recommend to your Psychology students in the future. It's only 4 weeks long.
DeleteWith so much to choose from, a learner who wants to gain knowledge to enrich his life can be a lifelong learner just by accessing the free resources online. Learning to enhance a career is another story.
ReplyDelete