Free Online University Courses
Keeping your skills sharp is much easier today than it was a few short years ago because of the disruptive innovation that education is experiencing now. Additionally, it used to be that lifelong learners had to spend a lot of time evaluating the quality of the information they found online, but with the introduction of massive open online courses (MOOCs), they now have access to their pick of courses that were designed by universities.
The free online university courses are shortened versions of the ones taught on campus, and some versions are a few years old. Unless you are in a technical field, the majority of those free online university courses are sufficient to allow you to keep your skills sharp, or test if a new career is for you. When you are deciding to take a course, before you choose, ask yourself if you are self-motivated and will do the course at your own pace, or if you need the structure of taking a course during a specific time period when it is offered. Many MOOCs courses are offered at specific times. [It is worth noting that you do not have access to professors when taking these free online university courses. If you want access, you have to pay for that privilege by registering with the university.]
The list of places where you can find free online university courses in this blog post is by no means exhaustive, but it is more than enough for anyone who wants to become a lifelong learner to keep their skills sharp.
So where do you find free online university courses?
- Online Courses: Has over 500 free online courses from the top universities and colleges around the world. You can search the online course catalog by area of study.
- Open Culture: Has over 725 courses from the top universities listed by area of study. The website also lists 500 MOOCs, many of which are certificate courses.
- Saylor: Has nearly 300 free and open courses.
- Academic Earth: Doesn’t specify how many university courses are included in their catalog, but the subjects are listed by discipline.
- Coursera: Has over 400 MOOCs in seven languages and several disciplines.
- edX: There are over 50 courses from the top universities.
- Udacity: Has mostly technical courses and doesn’t list the number of courses offered.
- TechnoDuet: Compiled a comprehensive list of MOOCs providers.
- Blog post “List of 40 FREE Educational Websites” includes where to find free courses
Links Mentioned in This Post
http://www.onlinecourses.com/
http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses
http://www.technoduet.com/a-comprehensive-list-of-mooc-massive-open-online-courses-providers/
http://www.saylor.org/
http://academicearth.org/online-college-courses/
https://www.coursera.org/courses
https://www.edx.org/
https://www.udacity.com/
http://chocolatesocrates.org/2014/08/list-of-40-free-educational-websites/
Which institution do you have to add to the list? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Liked this post? Share it and subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that's why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people.
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