Free Education Opportunities

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by LadyExecutive, Oct 24, 2008.

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  1. LadyExecutive

    LadyExecutive Member

    Found this today and thought some may benefit from the offers.

    Free Education

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Get your geek on: MIT offers a far more comprehensive selection of free online courses than other universities -- nearly its entire undergraduate and graduate curriculum. Downloading materials takes minutes. A newsletter highlights new offerings, from Quantum Physics to American Women Authors.

    What's the Catch? Users can’t enroll, take classes on campus, or earn degrees.

    Find Out More: www.ocw.mit.edu.

    BBC, FrenchPodClass. The BBC offers top-notch online and MP3 lessons in languages familiar and obscure, including French, German, Portuguese, Mandarin, Greek, and Urdu. FrenchPodClass has easy-to-use, enjoyable podcasts that allow you to learn French while you do errands or go for a run.
    What’s the Catch? Classes are one size fits all, which fast learners may find sluggish (and slow learners may find difficult). (See Real Simple's Shortcuts to

    Speaking a Foreign Language)

    Find Out More: www.bbc.co.uk/languages, www.frenchpodclass.com.

    Free Classes

    U.S. Small Business Administration. Learn how to write a business plan, register your company, and deal with the tax details of running a home business at your local Women’s Business Center evening classes (men are welcome, too).

    What’s the Catch? Novices and more advanced learners share the same classroom.

    Find Out More: www.sba.gov (click on “Local Resources” for a nearby center and for financial and marketing information). More Small Business Resources

    Apple Stores. Apple gives excellent classes on business and entertainment software, music programs, and computer basics, all remarkably free of sales pitches. There are also classes on how to use Apple hardware, like iPods. Most of the company’s stores -- there are more than 170 -- offer several classes a day.

    What’s the Catch? All classes relate to (often pricey) Apple products.
    Find Out More: www.apple.com (click on “Visit an Apple store”).
     
  2. Woho

    Woho New Member

  3. recruiting

    recruiting Member

    There is no real credit for these classes correct? I believe someone already touched on this program asking would would people think if he was to put down he was a MIT grad of was attending MIT because of these classes.. I think I remember that posting a few months back..

    :rolleyes:
     
  4. sentinel

    sentinel New Member

    How would someone go about earning credit for these courses? I cannot imagine the prior learning assessment or portfolio process would be a viable means considering PLAs typically require much more than a declaration of self-study. Many of these courses are interesting in their own right but being able to earn credit for them would be nice too.
     
  5. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    If you document the work put in by writing & saving the research papers/projects called for by the syllabus, receipts which show you purchased the texts, etc., you could probably earn portfolio credit. It would be up to the evaluator to check the papers/projects for quality and administer an exam if appropriate.
     
  6. swisha2k

    swisha2k New Member


    LadyExecutive, are you of Bahamian descent?
     
  7. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I've found that by rooting around both online and in my local area, I've been able to assemble the equivalent of an entire free university - books and journals, lectures by famous scholars, practice opportunities, even free RA university classes and (not too far in the future in my case) free RA degree programs. These examples inevitably address my interests, but it does show some of what's possible. Other people can feed their own interests in similar ways.

    1. Libraries. These are essentially free-universities in themselves. People overlook libraries and don't give them enough respect. There are all varieties of library out there - small local public libraries, large urban central public libraries, academic libraries at everything from community colleges to research universities, and an almost infinite variety of specialized libraries. I like San Jose's huge new joint SJSU/city university/public library. Welcoming to the general public and scholarly enough to be interesting. If people are in remote locations they can get scholarly books for free by interlibrary loan.

    2. On-line library resources. A library card will often get you access to stuff like full-text academic periodicals. I frequently browse the many excellent articles in the new edition of the 'Encyclopedia of Religion' that way and have printed hard-copies of hundreds of journal articles.

    3. Other online resources. This is kind of like a treasure hunt. Countless webpages on every subject contain an almost infinite variety of content. Google is your friend. So are the many people out there interested in the same things that you are who have already collected huge often-annotated lists of links for you.

    4. Used book stores. If you live in an urban university community, one of the greatest pleasures imaginable is browsing in these places. (Ok, I'm weird, I can't help it.) These stores are kind of a gradually dying breed I guess (like me) but Berkeley remains used-bookstore-heaven on the West Coast. (I've bought literally hundreds of books at Moes.)

    5. Museums. If you live in an urban area these are big-time resources, but even smaller towns often have interesting and unusual ones. They usually charge some admission, but you can buy memberships that get you unlimited admissions for a year or something. They often offer lectures and classes. San Jose's pleasantly peculiar Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum will teach you to read Egyptian heiroglyphs. San Francisco's Asian Art Museum is a truly remarkable world-class resource for those of us interested in that subject. The brand new California Academy of Sciences is a similarly happening place for biology buffs. Museums usually have all kinds of volunteer opportunities to get people more involved. There are probably more of these places around than most people suspect if you count the little modest ones.

    6. University lecture series. Many universities offer lots and lots of these and interested members of the public are usually welcomed. I'm personally interested in Buddhist studies and Stanford offers a full calendar of free public lectures, many by international-class figures.

    7. Interest groups. In the Buddhist studies area there are literally hundreds of temples, teachers, monasteries and practice groups in my area. This might be the most important element of the subject in fact. Some of these offer their own in-house education in Buddhist philosophy and psychology, close reading canonical texts, teaching ancient and modern Asian languages and such. For those with different interests there are amateur astronomy organizations, historical societies, environmental groups, aviation enthusiasts, computer nuts and who knows what else. You can stage fire operas or build giant battling robots.

    8. Look for unusual educational deals. For example, the California State University doesn't really publicize it, but the system will waive all fees for students 60 years old or over enrolling in degree programs. San Francisco State allows students 50 or over to audit individual classes for a flat $55/semester fee.
     

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