Higher education was once reserved for those only wealthy enough to fit the ever growing fees of further tuition. But, with internet access at the tips of our fingers, we can now add free college education to that ever growing wealth of information.
Popping up around the globe are a variety of online institutes dedicated to providing international access to free college courses, here are just a few of those on offer:
Khan Academy
With Khan Academy you can learn almost anything for free! Their mission is to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Their resources are completely free forever, regardless of whether you’re a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”https://www.khanacademy.org/” window=”_blank”]Visit Khan Academy[/button]EdX
EdX is a non-profit created by founding partners Harvard and MIT. Bringing the best of higher education to students around the world, EdX offers MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) and interactive online classes in subjects including law, history, science, engineering, business, social sciences, computer science, public health, and artificial intelligence (AI).
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”https://www.edx.org/” window=”_blank”]Visit EDX[/button]
Coursera
Coursera is an education company that partners with the top universities and organizations in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. Their technology enables their partners to teach millions of students around the world rather than just hundreds.
“We envision a future where everyone has access to a world-class education that has so far been available to a select few. We aim to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.”
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”https://www.coursera.org/” window=”_blank”]Visit Coursera[/button]
MIT OpenCourseWare
“The idea is simple: to publish all of our course materials online and make them widely available to everyone.”
Dick K.P. Yue, Professor, MIT School of Engineering
Virtually all MIT course content is available here. It’s open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity. Now the wealth of knowledge from one of the most prestigious technology schools in the world, is now available at your finger tips, without the massive tuition prices and near perfect SAT scores.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm” window=”_blank”]Visit MIT’s Open Course Ware[/button]
ALISON
ALISON is a two million-strong, global online learning community, filled with free, high-quality resources to help you develop essential, certified workplace skills.
“Our mission at ALISON is simple: to enable you, wherever you are in the world, to learn and get certified new skills – at your own pace – using our free, interactive, multimedia.”
There are over 500 free courses for you to choose from at ALISON. Every course is standards-based and certified, which means bragging rights with family and friends, an edge in your first job or new job, and inspiration to be all you can be.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://alison.com/” window=”_blank”]Visit Alison[/button]
Bookboon
Bookboon.com originates from Denmark, out of Ventus Publishing, established in 1988. Ever since it was founded, the company has focused on publishing education related books for business professionals and students.
In 2005 the company made a strategic leap and became the first book publishing company in the world to focus 100% on free eBooks. Ever since, the company has been aiming to set new standards in the world of modern publishing based on the readers’ needs.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://bookboon.com/” window=”_blank”]Visit Book Boon[/button]
Open Yale Courses
Open Yale Courses (OYC) provides lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses to the public free of charge via the Internet. The courses span the full range of liberal arts disciplines, including humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences.
Each course includes a full set of class lectures produced in high-quality video accompanied by such other course materials as syllabi, suggested readings, and problem sets. The lectures are available as downloadable videos, and an audio-only version is also offered. In addition, searchable transcripts of each lecture are provided.
[button color=”green” text=”white” url=”http://oyc.yale.edu/” window=”_blank”]Visit Open Yale Courses[/button]
It is important to note that for now, the majority of these places do not offer a certified college credit or a degree. However, it brings up a very interesting question, in the pursuing further education is a degree really the only thing that matters? Is learning a trade or skill by proof of action not enough, or is a certified piece of paper a necessity?
[button color=”black” text=”white” url=””]Please Share Your Experiences[/button] [separator type=”thin”]
What’s your opinion? Heard of any other ‘free college education’ type websites that may be helpful to fellow readers? What’s your experience with online tuition? Please comment below and help us aggregate the best information out there so together we can inspire others to live, to learn and to evolve.
