I've just discovered by accident that Barnes and Noble runs a "university." I haven't looked too carefully, but it appears to be free and not to involve degrees. For people who just want to pursue some sort of guided self-education maybe this would be a good thing: http://www.barnesandnobleuniversity.com/bnu/
The catch is that there are several 'required' texts for each course, so it's not really free. However, I've taken a couple of the courses, and they're not bad. Most last 5 or 6 weeks. Scott
This brings up something that we often forget. It is already possible for all of us to access non-credit DL "courses" for free in virtually every imaginable subject, at all levels from introductory to doctoral level. They are "taught" by some of the world's greatest authorities, from Nobel prize winners on down. The course materials are called BOOKS. They have syllabi called "tables of contents". They are available for borrowing in places called "libraries". If you want to keep the materials for your very own, you can find them for about $20 or so in "bookstores" (or considerably less in used-bookstores.) You can even buy them on-line and have them mailed to you. In fact, public libraries should probably be considered as a huge distance education network already maintained at public expense. But books are so familiar and so low tech (virtually unchanged since the invention of printing in the 15th century) that we ignore them and demand something less efficient and more expensive and cumbersome on the internet.
No, no degrees; really, it's just a beautiful way for an author to promote his/her books by making them required texts, then doing slow-reading studies of them. I think that might very well be a fun thing for me to do myself, although somehow the idea of doing a six-week class based on "Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead" or "Bears' Guide to the Best Education Degrees by Distance Learning" doesn't sound terribly appealing. Especially the final week, where I could end up lecturing at length on the subject index. Peace, ------------------ Tom Head www.tomhead.net
Tangentally related to this thread is the little-known but often practical method of getting an official, professor-taught education at the school of your choice for basically free. This will often work both at prestigious private schools and at large state schools. Probably not as well at community colleges. It works best if you happen to be of normal college age, but can also work for older students. If the class is a huge lecture class, there is no need whatsoever to do anything other than show up for class. No one ever takes attendance at lecture classes, so no one will notice you're there. With smaller classes, the majority of professors who enjoy teaching appreciate having students who are interested and excited in the subject matter being offered. In these classes, simply showing up to the first class, then approaching the professor at the end of the class and asking if s/he minds if you sit in is usually all that's necessary. Of course, if it's a popular class with a huge waiting list, this won't work, and it's also difficult for very small seminar classes... but for the majority of classes, one can often sit in, participate in discussions, and learn everything the students are learning. In some cases, the professors have even been willing to grade papers and exams of "sit-in" students. The *really* cool part of this is that one can then take the papers one has written (whether or not submitted to the professor) and use them as supporting materials for a portfolio submission to a school like TESC or Charter Oak... thereby getting the credit for the cost of the portfolio fee. Of course, the school where one is freeloading would most likely frown on such a maneuver, and if lots of people did it, then the system would obviously break down pretty quickly. But for some reason, the thought never occurs except to a very few people, and for them, it works very well. I know of several people who have done almost a full degree's worth of classes this way at several different schools. One of them is in the process of converting the coursework to credits via portfolio. So there are lots of different ways to learn for close-to-free.
Also, a lot of schools will let you "audit" courses, which means you register and are there officially, no grade and no credit is given, but your attendance is listed on a transcript. The fee to audit a course is usually much lower than registering for credit (I've seen $50 in a few places), and it's another great way to validate portfolio credit. Bruce
I like Chip's suggestion. I would probably talk to the professor in his/her office first though, rather than just showing up. There is a related way to get low-hassle units in California. The California State University has a system-wide program called "open university" that allows members of the community to attend on-campus university courses (including labs) without applying for admission or even being admitted. You just show up the first day of the class, stop by the extension office and pick up a form, get the instructor to sign it if there is room in the class after all the regularly enrolled students show up, then take the form back and pay a small fee. You take the class like everyoone else and get transferable university credit for it. The only catch is that you have to meet the normal course prerequisites, so you can't take an advanced course without an introductory course. They will only let you apply a certain number of these open university units towards one of their own degrees (they treat them like transfer credit), but if you don't have a degree objective you can take an unlimited number of them for as long as you want. Then take them to someplace like TESC and collect your degree. This works well for older students. When I was a graduate student in philosophy at SFSU, there was an elderly gentleman taking many courses that way. He was very visible since our classes were small and impossible to hide in. He was there, the faculty knew him, he took part in seminars and everything. I think that some people with bad grade averages who were turned down for regular admission use this as a back door. They take classes informally without a degree objective until their GPA (hopefully) rises enough that they can be admitted to a degree program. BTW, I might take an evening course or two this way myself in the fall, at San Jose State or someplace.
This is a bit off topic but speaking of free education, or rather an economy of scale I was fortunate this past May to receive another bachelors (RA) without any additional fees and 23 years later. The story: I was a student full-time and part-time at the University of North Dakota from 1978-85. During the part-time years I took a few additional courses and independent study to finish my Excelsior degree (154 sem. hrs of credit) while my spouse finished her undergraduate and law school. I did not graduate from UND after amassing 125 sem. hs. from them because I did not have my foreign language requirement complete (1 sem. of German and 1 sem. of French and the degree required 4 semesters of a foreign language). Anyway, 23 years after starting I visited the UND web site earlier this year and then wrote to the Dean of the Arts and Sciences college to see what I needed to do to finish me degree there. I hate leaving things unfinished. I also informed them of my other degree accomplishments. The response I received was that they would check with the respective departments but would be willing to award me a B.S. in interdisciplinary studies in physics and philosophy based on the work complete (this program was not available earlier and does not require a foreign language). I checked in about a month later and was informed as to what name I would like on my diploma and I was fortunate enough to not have to pay any fees. Hence, my new parchment has just arrived. It was a great gesture on the part of the University and a good feeling to have this completed. Just wanted to share! John ------------------ John R. Wetsch, Ph.D. B.S. '01 University of North Dakota B.S. '84 Excelsior College (USNY/Regents) M.A. '89 Antioch University, The McGregor School Ph.D. '94 Nova Southeastern University
I remember a TV sitcom or light drama based on this premise from a bazillion years ago. If memory serves, the main character was a young, single father with a daughter. The main character couldn't afford tuition and freeloaded the classes (and of course was always on the run from the Evil Administration). If someone remembers the name of this show, he/she gets two point of extra credit (for admitting how old you are).
That's pretty cool! I'm impressed with the University of North Dakota that they were willing to do that.
Me too. It was in the 80's that I had taken about 24 sem. hrs. of independent study from a wide variety of RA institutions. At the time UND was only going to accept a small fraction of those which is what drove me to find the USNY/Regents program at the time. John
