Are Free Online College Courses Worth Your Time?
Two things are now crystal clear about higher education. First, your children need it more than ever to stay competitive, and if you need to upgrade for a job market that is changing quickly, so do you. Second, the way education is delivered at colleges is flawed. Families are finding it harder to keep up with tuition costs, student debt, and reduced funding for public colleges.
Table of Contents
So it’s hard not to be excited about this: Professor Anant Agarwal from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is currently instructing thousands of people online in circuits and electronics for an unbeatable price of zero dollars, and there is no need for an MIT application. Top schools like Michigan, Princeton, and Harvard have also launched open courses for everyone.
The idea that this could alter, well, everything has the academic community buzzing. William Bowen, a former president of Princeton, asserts, “We are at a pivotal moment.” “Extreme technological advancement and economic necessity are merging.”
It has taken a long time and many spinning “video loading” icons to get to the point where students can use Ivy simulations to create prestigious degrees. Although it is simple and free to log in, receiving official credit for what you learn is still not possible. Many students consider online courses to be inferior alternatives to traditional classrooms due to the presence of bugs, such as raucous student discussion boards and clumsy grading systems.
However, adults looking for a new career skill, traditional students looking for learning aids, and anyone hoping to accelerate their education can all benefit from this. More change is on the way. You and your kids should know these things to get the most out of it.
You Can Sit In on Courses with MIT Profs
Agarwal’s course is known in education jargon as a MOOC or massive open online course. Web courses and online degrees have been around for years. As the name implies, MOOCs are different for their size (with tens of thousands of students at a time), their free price tag, and, frankly, the cachet of the schools that started them.
A typical massive online class includes several short recorded lecture modules each week and reading assignments. You’ll chat with other students online, and there’s homework, which may be graded by a computer or by peers. Some classes offer a few online meetings in which professors address questions posed by students. Although there may be a weekly schedule, it’s flexible.
Learn More About Online Learning Here...