I’m feeling a bit burned out right now, just with life in general. At the same time, I don’t want to stop any of the projects I’m currently working on. What does that means for readers here? Mostly that while I will try to keep to my usual posting schedule, there may not be a whole lot of quality content.

That said, for today’s post, there is actual content. Surprising, really.

 

I’ve Written About this Before

You may remember that back in January, I wrote about getting a world class education- for free. That post focused on MIT’s OpenCourseWare initiative, which is fabulous, but I wanted to make sure that my readers knew about the other amazing opportunities that are now available.

First of all, MIT and Harvard have joined forces with edX. Right now the offerings are limited, but this allows students to not just watch lectures recorded years ago, but actually take the class, interact with other students and the professor. These are full on, free classes from MIT and Harvard.

Sadly, the edX page is the least user friendly for seeing what is out there. But there are other online, free opportunities for a great education.

 

Who Else is Doing This?

Of your other options, first is Udacity. Right now, they only have 11 courses, and all of them are pretty computer science related. Still, if you’re interested in cryptography or need to understand statistics for your job, Udacity has offerings that will work for you. In addition, they let you certify your skills via a test.

The certificate does have a cost, but remember, it’s never been the education you’ve actually been paying for, it’s the degree with that institution’s name on it. No matter what kind of certificate you’re looking at getting, you should expect to pay a fee.

 

The big news right now, though, is Coursera. Coursera just reached deals with 12 new major institutions, bringing their total to 17. In addition to Stanford, which where Coursera started, students now have access to material from Duke, Johns Hopkins, Rice, California Institute of Technology, UC Berkely, and even University of Washington (right here in Seattle with me). They currently offer 111 courses.

Personally, I’m really interested in Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World, taught by Eric Rabkin of the University of Michigan. It starts on Monday, though, and as I mentioned before, I’m a little burned out. And since this is a personal finance blog, I feel compelled to mention that also starting on Monday, and also from a University of Michigan professor, is the course Introduction to Finance.

 

I do think it’s important to point out that with Coursera, like edX, you take the course when it’s offered. It’s not like the OpenCourseWare where you can study whenever you want. These are actual classes and include interaction with the professor and other students, even if it’s just online.

 

How Can They Give it Away for Free?

Remember, universities have never charged you for your education, even though they may claim otherwise. The charge has always been to get official credit, a transcript with that university’s name on it, or a degree or certificate. You were paying to associate yourself with their reputation. It just so happened that their reputation also pulled some of the best educators too them.

Well, now you have access to those educators, too.

 

Isn’t this More Work for the Professors?

What do the teachers get out of it? Well, have you heard of Khan Academy? Their motto is “Learn almost anything for free”. (These aren’t college courses, but it’s very useful for your K-12 student trying to get a better grasp of a single concept.) The founder, Salman Khan, has been pushing the idea of flipping the classroom.

What that means is that lectures are the homework, and in the classroom, teachers and students actually have time to work on the problems together, to do projects and focus on what is difficult for the students. So instead of just sitting and listening while in the classroom, and then having to “do” at home, with the help of parents, Khan thinks kids should sit, listen, and probably take notes, while at home. And then, they can “do” in the classroom, where the actual teacher is there to help them.

 

For college professors, recording lectures for use by OpenCourseWare or Coursera, or any of these initiative, allows them to flip the classroom. Instead of assigning reading in the text book and problem sets for homework, the homework is watching the lecture online. Then in class, the class can actually do projects, work on the problem sets. The teacher is there to help with the practical, and the practical is happening in the classroom, not in your living room or the library.

Remember how in science classes you had to take a lab section, and pay an extra fee for it, because there was no way you could do lab work in class, since the teacher was lecturing? Well, now, you can watch the lectures at home.

 

Student Benefits

I know, you can easily see how well this will work in math and science courses, but what about the humanities? Are you really going to watch lectures at home and then sit and write your papers in class? Probably not, but how many of your questions about what the teacher lectured about ever actually got answered in the 15 minutes (if you were lucky) the teacher left at the end of the lecture to answer questions? How many times were your ideas for a paper solidified and refined by talking to your peers. Now imagine that your whole class period is devoted to being able to ask the professor questions and to have meaningful discussion with your peers.

For those group projects we all hate, imagine a world where there is class time to work on them, instead of trying to find a time outside of class that will, by some cosmic law, only ever work for 66% of your group, and at least one person who says it will work for them forgets to show up.

And none of this even addresses the most basic benefit of watching the lecture on your computer instead of listening to it in person- you control the volume and speed. Does the professor have her back to you and it’s hard to hear? Turn up the volume. Need a moment longer to write down a complete thought for your notes? Hit the pause button. Did the teacher really just say what I think he did? You can rewind.

I’m as much a nerd as a geek, so I’m not ashamed to say this excites me. It kind of makes me want to go back to school.

 

We are very lucky to live in a time when educational opportunities are expanding this way. Take advantage. I know I’m going to. In fact, I’m wondering if any of you (I’m looking at you here, American Debt Project) want to take the Introduction to Operations Management class at Coursera with me. It doesn’t start until after FinCon and is only 6 weeks long.