Take a MOOC!

Do you have some downtime this summer?  Do you want to expand your horizons and learn something new? Consider a MOOC!

What is a MOOC? MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses, allowing anyone with an internet connection and computer to take free classes on virtually any subject from elite universities.  A MOOC can give you an opportunity to test drive a career, enhance your professional skills or simply explore something new.  Best of all, they are free, available 24/7, and you can learn at your own speed. Subjects vary from the Arts, Math, History, Business, Law, Technology and many more.  The lists keep changing.

How do MOOCs work?  MOOCs are designed for an online audience, teaching primarily through short (5-20 min.) pre recorded video lectures that you watch on a weekly schedule when convenient for you.  They may also have student discussion forums, homework/assignments, and online quizzes or exams, however, there is no course credit given (with some exceptions).

There are many sites administering MOOCs.  Most are affiliated with major universities, with courses taught by university faculty.  Here are a few to get you started:

Coursera  https://www.coursera.org/
One of the largest, Coursera offers over 680 courses in a wide range of subjects, many taught by Ivy League professors.

EDX https://www.edx.org/
This is a joint, nonprofit venture of Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley and others offering over 200 courses.

Udacity https://www.udacity.com/
Originally a project of Stanford University, Udacity has additional educational and corporate partners and offers courses primarily in Computer science, mathematics, life science, business, engineering.

Kahn Academy  https://www.khanacademy.org/about

Khan Academy is for “global classroom” originally developed for students, but now offers classes for all ages.  They also offer free test prep.

 

Class Central https://www.class-central.com/
This site is a MOOC aggregator - you can explore courses from several MOOC operators by searching for a subject.  Music of the Beatles, Sports and Society, Applied Real Estate, and The Fiction of Relationship are just a few of the offerings in their vast catalog.