Sylar
01-08-2013, 10:12 PM
http://www.edx.org/
https://www.coursera.org/
I'll be honest, I'm not sure whether I love these things or hate them!
On the one hand, they bring free and informed online accredited courses to a global audience irrespective of their background, affluence or geographical location (the only stipulation being internet access of course). The fact that there is demand for outreach education from some of the top Universities in the world is an encouraging sign that we as the human race continue to strive for knowledge, continue to better ourselves and continue to be inquisitive about art, history, science, engineering, mathematics etc etc etc
On the other hand, the continued success of these threatens to put me out of a job :greengrin
In all seriousness, I do love this idea though - access to free education which adds to CVs, broadens horizons and allows you to investigate nearly any subject you can imagine! Even as an academic, I find myself using some of these courses as an avenue to refreshing knowledge, learning new skillsets or interacting with a large community of people all moving together towards the same goal.
Anyway, I thought I'd bring these to the collective .net attention incase anyone is inclined - it really is a great venture and is incredibly rewarding! I'm actually running a couple of these this year and I look forward to experiencing the other side of the divide!
https://www.coursera.org/
I'll be honest, I'm not sure whether I love these things or hate them!
On the one hand, they bring free and informed online accredited courses to a global audience irrespective of their background, affluence or geographical location (the only stipulation being internet access of course). The fact that there is demand for outreach education from some of the top Universities in the world is an encouraging sign that we as the human race continue to strive for knowledge, continue to better ourselves and continue to be inquisitive about art, history, science, engineering, mathematics etc etc etc
On the other hand, the continued success of these threatens to put me out of a job :greengrin
In all seriousness, I do love this idea though - access to free education which adds to CVs, broadens horizons and allows you to investigate nearly any subject you can imagine! Even as an academic, I find myself using some of these courses as an avenue to refreshing knowledge, learning new skillsets or interacting with a large community of people all moving together towards the same goal.
Anyway, I thought I'd bring these to the collective .net attention incase anyone is inclined - it really is a great venture and is incredibly rewarding! I'm actually running a couple of these this year and I look forward to experiencing the other side of the divide!