Where Can I Find Free Education Online?
Many colleges and universities offer free online courses. You won't be able to earn a degree, but you can obtain an education from some of the top schools in the country by taking free courses online.
Overview
Free education is a non-degree way of expanding your knowledge base. Colleges offer many free courses online for those interested. Following are descriptions of several schools and their free online education programs.
Important Facts Regarding Free Online Education
| Prerequisites | Technical requirements may be mandatory such as specific programs, applications, headsets and microphones for your operating system to participate in the online class |
| Programs | Many free online educational courses are provided by various departments within the school |
| Online Availability | Some courses are set to start on a set date while others may be taken on an on-demand basis |
| Continuing Education | Online free courses provide the availability, and often times the flexibility, to allow you to update your professional skills and continue your overall education |
Yale University: Open Yale Courses
Open Yale Courses offers free online access to introductory courses in video, audio and text formats. The courses are identical to those being taught in Yale classrooms. Courses are available on the following topics, among others:
- Biomedical engineering
- Astronomy
- Classics
- English
- History
- Economics
- Philosophy
- Political science
- Physics
- Psychology
- Religious studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): OpenCourseWare
MIT's free OpenCourseWare (OCW) program publishes much of the course content that is available on the institute's campus. This content could include syllabi, course handouts and quizzes. More than 2,100 free courses, both graduate and undergraduate, are available online and cover topics from physics and engineering to literature and theater arts.
Princeton University: WebMedia
Princeton has archived online many of its guest lecturers dating back to 1998. These video lectures are available free, covering both scholarly and popular topics such as 'Quantum Mechanics and the Paradoxes of Entanglement' by mathematician John Conway and 'Are You Who We Think You Are?' by actress Glenn Close. The videos are viewable using Flash Player, available on the WebMedia site.
University of California (UC): Webcast.Berkeley
Webcast.Berkeley makes some courses and special events available online. The free courses can be viewed on the Webcast.Berkeley site, UC Berkeley on iTunes and UC Berkeley on YouTube. Course videos cover a wide range of academic subjects, including anthropology, political science, psychology, engineering, law, public health and physics. The free special events include debates, guest lectures, informational sessions and poetry readings.