Test Drive Online Learning
Posted by J.M. Striegel on July 26th, 2008
Are you still apprehensive about diving into the land of online learning? Fearful you won’t know what to do, won’t know where to go, and maybe you are wondering if you can even stick to a routine of studying, participating in class, and reading the materials on the syllabus? You can test drive a car before you buy it, so why not take a few free online classes before you send in that application and course fee?
I’ve previously written about education being portable, and when you can download a lecture from iTunes, I think you have to agree that we are in a wonderful time where the power of knowledge can be harnessed by those who actively seek it. The internet has opened the door to so many wonderful opportunities and information, but it can begin to look like a badly organized junk drawer. The tools are there, they just might be lost in the clutter.
The OpenCourseware Consortium is a free digital publication that attempts to make free online learning a little easier to navigate. Boasting 2,810 courses from 26 sources within a collaboration of more than 200 higher education organizations and institutions, the Consortium hopes to encourage “the adoption and adaptation of open educational materials around the world.” From Tufts University to the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain, there are online course materials just waiting for you to take notice and utilize them.
Don’t forget languages. The Foreign Service Institute offers courses that were developed by the United States government. The site uses text, podcasts, and online forum discussion to teach you Arabic to Yoruba. Adding a foreign language to your resume may open doors to new job options. No employer has ever complained that the employee knew too many languages.
Not only can these sites be helpful tools in assessing whether or not you are ready to return to the halls of academia, they can inspire your course of study. Now, thanks to sites like Lecturefox, you can dabble in courses and topics that you may never have known existed, much less would have been able to pursue within a specific course of study. Who knew you could be so excited about Religion as a Natural Phenomenon?
Tags: education online, foreign language, free online class, iTunes, lecturefox, OCWC, online learning
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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 26th, 2008 at 11:45 am and is filed under Online Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
