Yes Mom, I'm Going to Harvard And Its Free!
What if I were to tell you that because of new technology you can enroll in a course at Harvard or MIT, attend in the comfort of your home and pay a tuition of zero dollars? It's true and its happening now at your nearest internet connection.
An Introduction to MOOCs
You may have read of the term cloud computing which is used to describe large banks of computers that are available only through an internet connection. This is the technology that Google uses to speed your searches and offer you maps on demand. This same technology is also revolutionizing more complex computer applications. For example the word processing program that you used to use on your personal computer is slowly being replaced by word processing running on internet-based cloud computers.
Enter higher education. Because cloud computing technology dramatically lowers the cost of providing computer applications, a high quality interactive learning environment can easily be created to present university course material already in use in campus classrooms. These courses have come to be known as "Massive Online Courses" or MOOCs for short because they often have 10,000 or more students enrolled in a course rather than being taught in an auditorium or classroom.
There are a wide variety of courses available as MOOCs. Not surprisingly many of the first courses to be offered were technical courses such as computer programming. However at this point there are quite a number of courses available in the social sciences and humanities as well. The selection is often made-up of the most popular courses and/or the most popular professors at well-known universities.
In conjunction with the MOOC revolution some university courses have been (re)created with the MOOC environment in mind and such courses often include material that would be difficult to offer in an on-campus course. For example, I am currently enrolled in HarvardX SPU27x on the science of cooking and this course includes lectures from famous chefs around the world, the author of a well-known book on the science of cooking (speaking in Spanish with English subtitles), and staff members from America's Test Kitchen in addition to several Harvard physics and chemistry professors.
Enough Explanation--Where Do I Go?
Currently there are a handful of "platforms" that offer these courses. They are all very similar with some minor variations. These are not to be confused with "on-line universities" or on-line courses offered through universities (such as ULowell) which generally cost just as much as attending a course in a university classroom.
Enrollment is free. You may or may not receive some form of credit and/or certificate for attending. Eventually they may offer more formal degree programs but for now you can only really count on learning the material with perhaps some sort of certificate if you complete the exercises and quizzes. Even though most of these courses are offered using university content, the universities are clearly struggling with how to deal with a technology that could easily make them obsolete which accounts for the variation in the credit policies by course.
One good place to start your MOOC experience is EdX. EdX was created as a joint venture of MIT and Harvard. On the day this was written there are 96 courses being offered on topics as far ranging as the Alexander the Great to Flight Vehicle Aerodynamics. EdX courses are offered on a schedule so that the instructors and/or their assistants can interact with participants. You can register to audit a course at any time but you cannot receive credit for a course unless you complete your homework by the scheduled deadlines.
Coursera is another popular platform offering MOOCs. It was founded by a Stanford professor and offers a wide variety of courses. Coursera has a wider variety of universities participating on their platform and offers international courses taught in the native language of the instructor. It is very similar to EdX in that the courses are taught on a schedule. In my experience you are less likely to get formal credit for participation--this is controlled by the university that employs the particular instructor of your course. If you are interested in receiving credit for taking your course you should read the course description carefully. One interesting twist with Coursera is that they have a number of courses taught by Chinese Professors such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Culture
My final recommendation is Udacity which was founded by another Stanford professors. The courses here are almost exclusively science, math and computer technology. Udacity courses are "work at your own pace" although they are evolving to offer a scheduled "full experience" option which includes coaches to help with questions, etc.
Try it, You May Like It
The MOOC experience may not be for everyone but I think you will be very surprised at the high quality of the content. The courses are taught by some of the best instructors in the world and production quality of the instructional materials is often very good. Being able to access courses from the nearest computer is very convenient.
