Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
SoCal School Offers Tuition-Free College
PASADENA, Calif. -- A new online university based in Pasadena is offering students a free ride.
The University of the People, a non-profit venture, "promises to revolutionize higher education by providing universal access to college studies -- even in the poorest parts of the world," according to its website.
Oh ya, and there's no tuition.
Instead, the school will charge application and examination fees ranging from $10 to $100. It's an idea that would make Bartleby Gaines proud.
UoP will use open-source technology, social networking features and free course material from other universities, the Los Angeles Times reported. UoP will offer two undergraduate degrees: a BA in Business Administration and a BSc in Computer Science.
"Education, just like democracy, should be a right, not a privilege," said the institution's founder, Shai Reshef. "With a few keystrokes, UoP takes the concept of social networking and applies it to academia, providing a global chalkboard for all students."
Reshef told the Times that he's already been contacted by hundreds of potential students and professors wanting to volunteer.
"UoP intends to apply for accreditation from recognized authorities as soon as the waiting process for eligibility is met," according to UoPeople.com.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Pasadena-School-Offers-Tuition-Free-College.html
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Free college courses feed global hunger for learning
The following sites are launching pads for finding "open courseware," which makes college course materials such as videotaped lectures, outlines and quizzes widely accessible.
ocwconsortium.org
This site for the OpenCourseWare Consortium has links to more than 150 institutions that offer open courseware.
oercommons.org
This Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons site aims to connect educators with open courseware in their subject areas.
uocwa.org
This publicly financed site for the Utah OpenCourseWare Alliance links to seven Utah institutions and all their free offerings.
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special for USA TODAY
In 2002, when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology started making course content available free online, project organizers had no idea their site would become a favorite destination for science junkies across the globe.
They posted lecture outlines and other materials primarily as a resource for fellow educators. But a whopping 55% of the 750,000 monthly visitors come from the ranks of "independent learners" who simply want the knowledge that once required a student ID.
"Our biggest surprise was the number of independent learners," says Steve Carson, external relations director for MIT Open CourseWare (ocw.mit.edu). "It demonstrates the unsatisfied hunger for learning that's out there."
Independent learners are reaping a harvest of new, free opportunities either to brush up on skills or pursue an education that had always been out of reach. Through what's known as "open courseware," anyone with Internet access can freely tap materials from about 5,000 courses at more than 150 colleges and universities around the world.
From physics to family finance
The resource base is expanding quickly. Last year, Utah became the first state to publicly fund open courseware by establishing the Utah OpenCourseWare Alliance, which provides materials from seven institutions. Last fall, Yale University launched the first seven in a planned collection of nearly 30 open courses, all involving complete sets of videotaped lectures (open.yale.edu). And Apple's iTunes U website enables free access to audio and video of lectures supplied by dozens of schools.
Through open courseware, Yale's "Fundamentals of Physics" and "Modern Poetry" are as accessible as Utah State University's "Family Finance" and "Vegetable Gardening and Lawn Care." Education scholars see vast potential. Independent learners might use course materials to fill in gaps in their educations and save time because experts have packaged a wealth of information for them, says Janette Hill, an associate professor of instructional technology at the University of Georgia.
But open courseware also is raising questions about how much interaction is necessary to make learning successful.
"Is it enough just to have the information?" Hill asks. "The power of learning occurs (in) some kind of discussion forum where people can share ideas about what they've been reading, what they've been listening to, and extend that to each other."
Users have many reasons for dabbling in open courseware, which, unlike online degree programs, doesn't offer course credits. Sanitation engineers in developing countries sometimes need technical know-how, Carson says, so they'll seek out an MIT engineering course. Alumni and parents monitor courses at the University of Notre Dame site to stay in touch with intellectual life on campus, says Terri Bays, project director for Notre Dame OpenCourseWare.
Some people are even charting a discount path to a degree. Shirley Thomas of Owings Mills, Md., says she wants to pursue a new career after 27 years in nursing, but she's not sure yet what to study. Her solution: Test the waters by studying international economics through USU's open courseware. Later she hopes to get credit through the College Board's College-Level Examination Program (CLEP), which allows test takers to earn college credit for what they already know.
"I don't feel like sitting in a classroom after working a 12-hour shift," Thomas says. "It is extremely important for me to be able to take classes for free, especially since I haven't decided which degree to pursue."
Others, however, have become frustrated by sorting through piles of materials without any guidance or sounding board for questions. Seventy-year-old retiree Diana Hatfield-Bixby browsed MIT's open courseware from her home in Palouse, Idaho, but soon gave up in the absence of any back-and-forth communication.
"What I'd like to have is one-on-one with people responding to e-mail, (but) there's no way I could afford online education," which involves paying tuition, Hatfield-Bixby says. "With this type of open courseware program, there shouldn't be any lack of education. But how one is expected to achieve that knowledge has to be clearer, more defined and less intimidating."
'More important than just a degree'
As open courseware matures, its forms vary as widely as its content. Notre Dame's "Introduction to Philosophy," for instance, supplements a reading list with lecture outlines. "Introduction to Non-violence" at the University of California-Berkeley involves watching 28 lectures on YouTube.
Not everyone prefers multimedia platforms. In Indonesia, limited bandwidth means it's easier to download static files than to deal with streaming video or audio. Because many materials from MIT and USU don't require multimedia platforms, teachers across Indonesia are able to access them and benefit, even though they're not studying for credit.
"Learning materials and process are more important here than just a degree," says Ferry Haris, a computer programmer for the Indonesian government. "Especially when books are very costly for most of us here."
As more institutions supply open courseware, independent learners who might not be MIT-level whiz kids will find subjects presented on more accessible levels, according to David Wiley, director of the Center for Open Sustainable Learning at USU. MIT has led the way, but now that MIT has made all of its 1,800 courses available, organizers there are glad to see others catching up.
"We're losing market share by the day," Carson says, "and that's really exciting."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-02-26-open-courseware_N.htm
ocwconsortium.org
This site for the OpenCourseWare Consortium has links to more than 150 institutions that offer open courseware.
oercommons.org
This Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons site aims to connect educators with open courseware in their subject areas.
uocwa.org
This publicly financed site for the Utah OpenCourseWare Alliance links to seven Utah institutions and all their free offerings.
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special for USA TODAY
In 2002, when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology started making course content available free online, project organizers had no idea their site would become a favorite destination for science junkies across the globe.
They posted lecture outlines and other materials primarily as a resource for fellow educators. But a whopping 55% of the 750,000 monthly visitors come from the ranks of "independent learners" who simply want the knowledge that once required a student ID.
"Our biggest surprise was the number of independent learners," says Steve Carson, external relations director for MIT Open CourseWare (ocw.mit.edu). "It demonstrates the unsatisfied hunger for learning that's out there."
Independent learners are reaping a harvest of new, free opportunities either to brush up on skills or pursue an education that had always been out of reach. Through what's known as "open courseware," anyone with Internet access can freely tap materials from about 5,000 courses at more than 150 colleges and universities around the world.
From physics to family finance
The resource base is expanding quickly. Last year, Utah became the first state to publicly fund open courseware by establishing the Utah OpenCourseWare Alliance, which provides materials from seven institutions. Last fall, Yale University launched the first seven in a planned collection of nearly 30 open courses, all involving complete sets of videotaped lectures (open.yale.edu). And Apple's iTunes U website enables free access to audio and video of lectures supplied by dozens of schools.
Through open courseware, Yale's "Fundamentals of Physics" and "Modern Poetry" are as accessible as Utah State University's "Family Finance" and "Vegetable Gardening and Lawn Care." Education scholars see vast potential. Independent learners might use course materials to fill in gaps in their educations and save time because experts have packaged a wealth of information for them, says Janette Hill, an associate professor of instructional technology at the University of Georgia.
But open courseware also is raising questions about how much interaction is necessary to make learning successful.
"Is it enough just to have the information?" Hill asks. "The power of learning occurs (in) some kind of discussion forum where people can share ideas about what they've been reading, what they've been listening to, and extend that to each other."
Users have many reasons for dabbling in open courseware, which, unlike online degree programs, doesn't offer course credits. Sanitation engineers in developing countries sometimes need technical know-how, Carson says, so they'll seek out an MIT engineering course. Alumni and parents monitor courses at the University of Notre Dame site to stay in touch with intellectual life on campus, says Terri Bays, project director for Notre Dame OpenCourseWare.
Some people are even charting a discount path to a degree. Shirley Thomas of Owings Mills, Md., says she wants to pursue a new career after 27 years in nursing, but she's not sure yet what to study. Her solution: Test the waters by studying international economics through USU's open courseware. Later she hopes to get credit through the College Board's College-Level Examination Program (CLEP), which allows test takers to earn college credit for what they already know.
"I don't feel like sitting in a classroom after working a 12-hour shift," Thomas says. "It is extremely important for me to be able to take classes for free, especially since I haven't decided which degree to pursue."
Others, however, have become frustrated by sorting through piles of materials without any guidance or sounding board for questions. Seventy-year-old retiree Diana Hatfield-Bixby browsed MIT's open courseware from her home in Palouse, Idaho, but soon gave up in the absence of any back-and-forth communication.
"What I'd like to have is one-on-one with people responding to e-mail, (but) there's no way I could afford online education," which involves paying tuition, Hatfield-Bixby says. "With this type of open courseware program, there shouldn't be any lack of education. But how one is expected to achieve that knowledge has to be clearer, more defined and less intimidating."
'More important than just a degree'
As open courseware matures, its forms vary as widely as its content. Notre Dame's "Introduction to Philosophy," for instance, supplements a reading list with lecture outlines. "Introduction to Non-violence" at the University of California-Berkeley involves watching 28 lectures on YouTube.
Not everyone prefers multimedia platforms. In Indonesia, limited bandwidth means it's easier to download static files than to deal with streaming video or audio. Because many materials from MIT and USU don't require multimedia platforms, teachers across Indonesia are able to access them and benefit, even though they're not studying for credit.
"Learning materials and process are more important here than just a degree," says Ferry Haris, a computer programmer for the Indonesian government. "Especially when books are very costly for most of us here."
As more institutions supply open courseware, independent learners who might not be MIT-level whiz kids will find subjects presented on more accessible levels, according to David Wiley, director of the Center for Open Sustainable Learning at USU. MIT has led the way, but now that MIT has made all of its 1,800 courses available, organizers there are glad to see others catching up.
"We're losing market share by the day," Carson says, "and that's really exciting."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-02-26-open-courseware_N.htm
Free Money for College
Free money for college is available from a variety of sources and offered as scholarships and grants. Both are an attractive way to pay because you do not need to repay the money.
They are available from a variety of sources, including federal and state governments and private sources, such as employers, professional associations, and educational institutions.
Some grants and scholarships are based on financial need, others are awarded based on achievement, religious affiliation, ethnicity, memberships, hobbies, or special interests.
Scholarships
Free Scholarship Search
Grants
Upromise is a free service that gives you money back for college on your eligible purchases of participating products and services.
Pssst! Wanna Go to College for Free?
Most parents would love to send their kids to college for free but probably don't believe it's possible. It is—if you know where to look
By Alison Damast
Tim Stroud's alarm goes off at 3:40 a.m. every weekday morning, a time when most of his classmates at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo., are fast asleep. By 4:30 a.m., he is out in the pasture in his work boots gathering the college's herd of 50 Holstein cows into the barn for their morning milking session. His unusual campus job—working in the dairy 15 hours a week—is a small price to pay for what he sees as one of the best deals today in higher education: a free degree.
At the College of the Ozarks, all students' tuition costs are offset by a mandatory work-study program. "If I was going to go to school, I was going to try to do it with the least amount of debt possible," said Stroud, a sophomore from Hume, N.Y., who wants to pursue a career in agriculture.
The cost of college is a red hot issue today, with students and parents fretting about how they will be able to foot the skyrocketing tuition bills at many private and public colleges. The College Board reported on Oct. 22 that tuition at public and private colleges for the 2007-08 academic year continued to outpace inflation (BusinessWeek.com, 10/22/07). Tuition prices at private colleges and universities average almost $24,000 this year, and that's not including room and board.
Focusing on Specialized Education
Stroud is one of several thousand students in the U.S. taking advantage of colleges that come with no sticker shock. Tuition-free colleges—also known as full-scholarship colleges—remain one of higher education's best-kept secrets. True to their name, they are institutions that guarantee to cover the entire student-body's tuition. There are only a handful of such schools in the U.S., which is one reason they are often overlooked by students, parents, and high school guidance counselors during the college search, says Sandy Baum, a senior policy analyst at the College Board. "It's not a trend of the future. It's just a certain niche market. These schools have unique situations that allow them to go tuition-free," she said.
They range from an urban college like the Cooper Union in New York's East Village to Deep Springs College, a remote, all-male school deep in the California desert. Many are specialized institutions, often focusing on engineering, such as the F.W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass.; or on music, like the Curtis Institute in Pennsylvania. A handful—the College of the Ozarks or Berea College in Kentucky—have mandatory work-study programs. Perhaps the most well-known of them is the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., which offers free college tuition in exchange for five years of service after graduation.
Students who attend these schools walk away from college with little to no loans, debt, and financial worries after they graduate. In most cases, the only fee students need to pay is room and board, a cost separate from college tuition. It's a financial situation with almost irresistible appeal for college students with limited means, said Rick Darvis, co-founder of the National Institute of Certified College Planners, an organization founded in 2002 to help families navigate the college loan and financial aid market. "For kids coming out of college today, debt-free is pretty rare," Darvis said. "As far as a kid having a summer job to help pay off college, that's not going to happen anymore."
Salvation for Parents Who Didn't Plan
Though finding tuition-free schools can take some legwork, parents and students say the payoff is worth it in the long run.
Pamela Clemens, the mother of Erin Clemens, a college senior, said she still remembers how relieved she was when her daughter received an acceptance letter from the College of the Ozarks. Clemens and her husband, a self-employed handyman in Lebanon, Miss., had failed to save properly for their daughter's college education and were frantic about how they were going to foot her tuition bills, she said. "We were free from the burden of figuring out where we were going to get the money or take out loans for my daughter's college education," Clemens said. "Just knowing we won't have to deal with that for all these years is just such a feeling of freedom."
Aside from saving parents and students from financial burden, attending a tuition-free school has other benefits. These schools create an environment where all students can feel comfortable with each other regardless of their personal finances, said Andrew McCreary, a second-year student from Salt Lake City at Deep Springs College. "Everyone came here as an equal, and everyone has the same free opportunity, so money never has to come up," said McCreary. "We are all on the same footing."
Endowments Help
Covering the tuition cost of an entire student body is not an easy task in today's higher-education market where the cost of faculty salaries, fringe benefits, and supplies and materials continues to rise. The inflation gauge used by higher education officials to track the costs of running a university, the Higher Education Price Index, increased by 3.4% in the 2007 fiscal year.
Fortunately, most tuition-free colleges are cushioned from the shock of these spiraling costs by large endowments given to the schools by benefactors. For example, the Cooper Union, a four-year college specializing in engineering, art, and architecture, has an endowment worth more than $600 million, the bulk of which is New York City real estate and securitized investments, said George Campbell, the school's president. The school spends $35 million annually to fund the tuition costs of its 950 students, in addition to $15 million for other operating expenses.
The endowment allows the school to maintain the mission of industrialist and inventor Peter Cooper, who founded the school in 1859 with the vision that "education should be as free as water or air," Campbell said, adding "It's a mandate that we hold close to us even today. We think we make a very unique and important contribution in the constellation of higher-education institutions that virtually no one else makes."
Olin a Recent Arrival
At the College of the Ozarks, the $375 million endowment is the "backbone" of the school's financial operation, along with donations from alumni, said Jerry Davis, the college's president. The school supplements its operating budget through mandatory work-study program, where students can work a job at one of 80 work stations, ranging from overseeing the school's hog farm to cooking in the fruitcake and jelly kitchen.
Students are appreciative of their free education, not complaining about their work loads or the college's strict chapel requirements and dress code, Davis said. "We think it's a bad idea to settle young people with modest means with heavy debt, so the students who come here are very fortunate and I think most people know that," he added.
While most of the country's tuition-free schools have been around for 100 years, some newer ones have been established in the past decade, such as the Olin College of Engineering. The engineering school officially launched in academic year 2002-2003 with the help off a $460 million endowment gift from the F.W. Olin Foundation.
Running a tuition-free school in today's financial market proved to be harder than the founders initially thought, said Stephen Hannabury, Olin's vice-president for administration and finance. There were some initial challenges as the school struggled to get off the ground. For example, the endowment did not grow as quickly as the school had anticipated and it had to scale back on the number of students it planned to admit. Since then, the endowment has climbed to $491 million and the school has graduated two classes of students.
"It is a little bit more complicated to set up this type of school today, but I think it is certainly worth other institutions' considering it if they have the financial resources to do it," Hannabury said. "The cost of higher education is getting to the point where different solutions, if you will, need to be looked at."
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/nov2007/pi20071113_819956.htm
Friday, March 6, 2009
Free College Degree
A free college degree is available to anyone who can fulfill credit requirements by having enough life experience qualifying them as sufficiently knowledgeable in the field. Free college degrees are awarded when there is no need to take a class, and all requirements are met by being able to prove past experience through jobs, education, and other activities. Often, there is a processing charge for this program to evaluate life experiences. When investigating this subject, one might find that their experience does cover a wide range of subjects, but that some classes will still need to be undertaken in order to gather enough education to be awarded a degree. If a person is experienced in their field, and they want to research returning to school, then they might be a candidate for a free degree. "But as for the pure, his work is right." (Proverbs 21:8)
For someone who has gained valuable experience, valuable skills, and extensive training in their job fields, there are opportunities to receive certifications. There are many times in life when people gain these experiences and can utilize what has been learned toward receiving certification through a school or program. For someone who has performed a great deal of community service in the area of education or mentoring, it may be possible to receive college credit hours toward a degree in teaching. Another helpful life experience that can lead to a free college degree would be job or career training through an organization. This could help an individual receive credit hours in business courses.
Some schools that offer these programs at no cost are accredited. Online, there is much information about free college degrees and how to fulfill the credit requirements. There are also many schools that offer degrees for life experience on the Internet. The online schools offer a diverse range of free college degree credits for life experience, so there are options in choosing a discipline. When seeking to obtain this certification or diploma, students will generally be charged an application and evaluation fee from the college they are investigating.
As with any online school that offers this type of program, it is important to thoroughly research the school. A student should ask questions about accreditation and ask for references from students who have obtained free college degrees in the past. Also, if someone is seeking to advance in their job position, the individual can speak with an employer about the school they are planning to obtain life credits from and make sure that the employer will recognize the degree as a legitimate education. It is always a good idea to research a free college degree before committing to a program.
http://www.christianet.com/distancelearning/freecollegedegrees.htm
For someone who has gained valuable experience, valuable skills, and extensive training in their job fields, there are opportunities to receive certifications. There are many times in life when people gain these experiences and can utilize what has been learned toward receiving certification through a school or program. For someone who has performed a great deal of community service in the area of education or mentoring, it may be possible to receive college credit hours toward a degree in teaching. Another helpful life experience that can lead to a free college degree would be job or career training through an organization. This could help an individual receive credit hours in business courses.
Some schools that offer these programs at no cost are accredited. Online, there is much information about free college degrees and how to fulfill the credit requirements. There are also many schools that offer degrees for life experience on the Internet. The online schools offer a diverse range of free college degree credits for life experience, so there are options in choosing a discipline. When seeking to obtain this certification or diploma, students will generally be charged an application and evaluation fee from the college they are investigating.
As with any online school that offers this type of program, it is important to thoroughly research the school. A student should ask questions about accreditation and ask for references from students who have obtained free college degrees in the past. Also, if someone is seeking to advance in their job position, the individual can speak with an employer about the school they are planning to obtain life credits from and make sure that the employer will recognize the degree as a legitimate education. It is always a good idea to research a free college degree before committing to a program.
http://www.christianet.com/distancelearning/freecollegedegrees.htm
Free College
Not headed back to school this fall? You could be, minus the exorbitant tuition and without even leaving your chair. The web has made it easier than ever before to get a free education, and you'd join the ranks of great thinkers in history who were also self-taught, like Joseph Conrad, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Paul Allen, Agatha Christie and Ernest Hemingway. You, too, can be an autodidact; the breadth of free educational materials available online is absolutely astonishing.
Note: Many colleges and universities offer free courses online in the form of podcasts, lectures, tutorials and full-blown online classes. Most of these courses, while extremely smart-making, will NOT award any college credits or degrees.
Free online college courses
Grab some larnin' from the University of Washington's free online courses; Greek mythology, American Revolution, Heroic Fantasy are just some of the offerings. If you get tired of that, you can study economics at the University of Nebraska.
Teach yourself sign language from Michigan State University. Browse through the vast treasures at the Library of Congress. View free videos on all sorts of subjects from Annenberg Media, a major supplier to most distance learning universities, or read the core documents of American democracy.
Feel like a little light reading? You can study theology at Covenant Seminary; course offerings are delivered via a combo of free downloadable .pdf files and podcasts, and include subjects ranging from Church History to the Modern Reformation.
Learn mathematics with this extensive list of free online math courses from Whatcom Community College. Visit Carnegie Mellon University and take Biology, Causal Reasoning, Statistics, and more, all for free.
Penn State University offers a free Swedish language course, in addition to a free Hungarian language course. Or, you can take an Italian language and culture course from Brooklyn College. California State also offers a free Conversational Mandarin Chinese course, and you can learn Turkish via the University of Arizona.
The University of Washington School of Medicine offers free CPR classes online, complete with video and instructional guides. You can also take health courses from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; anything from adolescent health to population science.
Prepare for the US citizenship test from the Missouri Southern State University. Learn linear algebra from the University of Puget Sound. Learn about bioterrorism (really) and other hazards from the University of North Carolina.
Get free online mathematics textbooks, videos, and lecture notes from New York University. Take advantage of Tufts University's open courses on dentistry, medicine, nutrition, and more. Learn about cognitive science from Hampshire College.
Take eight different courses via the Sofia Project, a collaborative effort between select California community colleges. Brigham Young University offers independent study in subjects such as Family History, Family Life, and Religious Scripture Study. Get access to ten free seminary courses from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Learn about human resources in 52 (!) different free courses from ERI. Browse a huge variety of materials in the University of Michigan's courses and seminars on Internet laws.
Ivy League
Take advantage of Stanford University's free CS education library. Go to college by taking free classes at MIT. Go to Berkeley with your iPod.The University of Pennsylvania has an extensive online library; over 25,000 books are listed here.
Just debuted, you can take free courses from Yale (funded by HP) on such diverse subjects as the Old Testament or Physics. Watch or read free online lectures in archival format from Princeton. Get a free Introduction to Probability text from Dartmouth.
Google tricks
Using the right keywords, find course syllabi (insert your own subject), lectures, tutorials, notes, podcasts, and various sorts of online books using Google.
As time goes on, I'm sure we'll see even more colleges and universities making even more of their courses open access. Got any other free online college courses or resources you'd like us to know about? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Wendy Boswell is an associate editor at Lifehacker who loves to learn on the web. Her special feature Technophilia appears every Monday at Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Technophilia RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
http://lifehacker.com/software/education/technophilia-get-a-free-college-education-online-201979.php
Note: Many colleges and universities offer free courses online in the form of podcasts, lectures, tutorials and full-blown online classes. Most of these courses, while extremely smart-making, will NOT award any college credits or degrees.
Free online college courses
Grab some larnin' from the University of Washington's free online courses; Greek mythology, American Revolution, Heroic Fantasy are just some of the offerings. If you get tired of that, you can study economics at the University of Nebraska.
Teach yourself sign language from Michigan State University. Browse through the vast treasures at the Library of Congress. View free videos on all sorts of subjects from Annenberg Media, a major supplier to most distance learning universities, or read the core documents of American democracy.
Feel like a little light reading? You can study theology at Covenant Seminary; course offerings are delivered via a combo of free downloadable .pdf files and podcasts, and include subjects ranging from Church History to the Modern Reformation.
Learn mathematics with this extensive list of free online math courses from Whatcom Community College. Visit Carnegie Mellon University and take Biology, Causal Reasoning, Statistics, and more, all for free.
Penn State University offers a free Swedish language course, in addition to a free Hungarian language course. Or, you can take an Italian language and culture course from Brooklyn College. California State also offers a free Conversational Mandarin Chinese course, and you can learn Turkish via the University of Arizona.
The University of Washington School of Medicine offers free CPR classes online, complete with video and instructional guides. You can also take health courses from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; anything from adolescent health to population science.
Prepare for the US citizenship test from the Missouri Southern State University. Learn linear algebra from the University of Puget Sound. Learn about bioterrorism (really) and other hazards from the University of North Carolina.
Get free online mathematics textbooks, videos, and lecture notes from New York University. Take advantage of Tufts University's open courses on dentistry, medicine, nutrition, and more. Learn about cognitive science from Hampshire College.
Take eight different courses via the Sofia Project, a collaborative effort between select California community colleges. Brigham Young University offers independent study in subjects such as Family History, Family Life, and Religious Scripture Study. Get access to ten free seminary courses from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Learn about human resources in 52 (!) different free courses from ERI. Browse a huge variety of materials in the University of Michigan's courses and seminars on Internet laws.
Ivy League
Take advantage of Stanford University's free CS education library. Go to college by taking free classes at MIT. Go to Berkeley with your iPod.The University of Pennsylvania has an extensive online library; over 25,000 books are listed here.
Just debuted, you can take free courses from Yale (funded by HP) on such diverse subjects as the Old Testament or Physics. Watch or read free online lectures in archival format from Princeton. Get a free Introduction to Probability text from Dartmouth.
Google tricks
Using the right keywords, find course syllabi (insert your own subject), lectures, tutorials, notes, podcasts, and various sorts of online books using Google.
As time goes on, I'm sure we'll see even more colleges and universities making even more of their courses open access. Got any other free online college courses or resources you'd like us to know about? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Wendy Boswell is an associate editor at Lifehacker who loves to learn on the web. Her special feature Technophilia appears every Monday at Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Technophilia RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
http://lifehacker.com/software/education/technophilia-get-a-free-college-education-online-201979.php
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