Monday, November 26, 2012

The Future of Post Secondary is Free

At the beginning of the year I created a post about taking MIT courses for free. Well they aren't the only university offering their wares gratis. Many post secondary institutions are doing the same. And not only are they doing the same but they seem to be developing cooperatives. One such cooperative is Coursera. With over 206 courses and 33 Universities, this might be your one stop shop for free high end learning. And we are not talking about slouches for schools here :
Now as with MIT, you won't get the credit for the course but you will get the knowledge (and a certificate - yay). And in the current world we live in, that is all you may need to be successful. What you can actually do will more than likely start to trump that university degree (if it doesn't already). Sure some of these courses may not seem to have immediate application (Neuroethics or A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Thinking) or are highly specialized (Equine Nutrition) but many are exactly the sort of thing that might move you ahead (Creative Programming for Digital Media and Mobile Apps).

Now before you dismiss this as a passing thing, listen to Keith Devlin (Standford Professor, author of over 30 books and NPR's Math Guy). Here he talks about the 60,000+ students taking his MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) Introduction to Mathematical Thinking a few weeks ago.

So good luck to you all in your new education

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