I keep running into articles and opinions in the social media sphere attacking the dysfunction of the America higher education system. We may not have the perfect solution for how the US can stand up with the developed countries of the world that offer citizens free education, but MOOCs bring us a step closer.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a great resource for honing your skills or embarking on the development of a new one. Best of all, there is no excuse because they are FREE!
I recently completed a course for teachers of English as a foreign language that I found very informative and helpful. It was one five week section of a series, but I wasn't required to do the preceding course to qualify, nor did I have to do the following course to get my Statement of Accomplishment (which is kind of a achievement reward that you can show off on a resume or your LinkedIn profile). It's up to you, the learner, to decide what you want and what works for you and your schedule. I quite like that idea, so I want to offer you some information on these rapidly growing, excellent resources.
1. Coursera - "Take the world's best courses, online, for free."
With 12 million registered users, this is the largest platform for online skill building. No gimmicks, no games. Coursera offers nearly 1000 courses from over 100 partner institutions, including Yale, Duke, Berklee College of Music, and MoMA.
Coursera is where I did my five week English as a Foreign Language course with, and I was very pleased with the experience. The course moderators were real professors from the University of Oregon, a very highly recognized institution. There were weekly required readings and videos, and the information was available in a variety of formats so you could read and watch at your pace during your free time, no matter where you were. You could download all of the content and load it onto your tablet or load the reading material to your reader to give you access on the go. It's really cooperative, and the users in the courses were great about commenting and questioning on the message boards. At the end, I received a Statement of Accomplishment, which made me feel good.
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| The heavyweight champion of the MOOC model |
This site is tailored to the techy, offering what they call a "nanodegree: credentials for today's jobs in tech." Their programs start with a beginning programming course and range to data analysis, iOS and Android developing, computer science, and coding in multiple formats. The best part is, these are hosted by tech companies like Google, universities like Georgia Tech, and operated by top industry professionals and teachers of the course subject you choose.
I like the way Udacity has structured their programs, and although I have not done a course with them, I can say with confidence that this is where I would go for tech specific skill building. The nanodegree model shows your potential or current employer that you have gone through the rigors of a course, much like what you had to do at a college, university, trade school, or for a licensing test. it shows that you've got what it take to stick it out to the end, and with success.
3. edX - "Take great online course from the world's best universities"
Like many of the other course curators on this list, edX offers a Certificate of Achievement for completing courses. It may be a different name, but the fact is that people want something tangible that verifies they have completed all requirements or a certain amount of hours building up to a greater certification. One thing that is really cool about edX is they offer a demo course for you to try out and see how you like the experience.
The courses at edX also span a wide variety, from public speaking and edutainment (a blend of entertainment and education) development, to methods of evaluating social programs and defining varieties of architectural styles around the globe. This site really brings a great amount of educational fields to one platform so interested parties can really feel like they are able to access any field that may be offered at a physical campus.
4. SkilledUp - "We're education reformers"
As soon as you arrive at the about page on you feel the sense of pride that SkilledUp takes in their pursuits. One sentences on their about page reads: "Online courses empower you to build foundations of knowledge that help propel you further professionally and personally. That's transformative."
Damn straight it is! Chances are if you are looking for online courses for professional and personal development, you want something that's transformative. The courses offered include, but are not limited to, technology, business, general education, and creative arts. Some courses are free and some are paid, but if you choose to pay, it's as the president of SkilledUp said, "[The courses] can provide true return on investment of both time and money."
5. Udemy - "Your place to learn real world skills online."
On this website you can take free courses, but they heavily promote their paid courses that come in a range of packages at a range of prices. You want to learn how to develop websites and build apps? They've got you covered. You want to learn marketing strategies to meet the demand of the internet marketplace? They've got courses to meet your needs. Just have a look at the range of topics of which courses are offered on the right.
They have some really good simple skill courses, like how to increase web traffic with hashtagging, and implement effective time management strategies in your daily life (which many of us should probably sign up for). Also, for about the cost of a dinner and a beer at your favorite restaurant, plus tip ($25), you can learn how to effectively grow a YouTube channel for monetization. If you want to swing for the fence, you can take a course in becoming a profitable photoshop and web design freelancer for $499. It may sound a little steep, but the return on that investment is no doubt going to make you forget about that small dent once you are getting freelance gigs that pay equal or more for a day's worth of work.
6. EDUCAUSE - "Uncommon Thinking for the Common Good"
This one is a little more specialized, but is worth including because they really offer a wealth of valuable resources. The goal at EDUCAUSE is to provide IT professionals with a platform to improve higher education, but that doesn't mean you need to be an IT professional to benefit from their programs and services.
Their membership institutions, corporations, associations and other organizations contribute to the mission at EDUCAUSE by focusing on specific processes that acknowledge and promote the importance of IT in higher education. They do research and publish findings, hold conferences and special events both in a variety of physical locations and online to promote their mission. They provide career development courses online, and provide a place for professionals to reach out beyond state and national borders to broaden their network and help each other develop professionally. So, the highlight here is that the site also offers good peer-to-peer network development similar to LinkedIn, but with the added bonus that you are likely somehow collaborating with your network through the site.
7. Class Central - Free Online Education
This site is super cool. It aggregates MOOCs from Coursera, Udacity, edX and many others so that you can search the courses of multiple sites at once instead jumping between them to find the right courses for you. As you can see in the screen capture from their homepage below, the institutions that offer courses include world renowned universities. With it offering more than just the courses from the aforementioned sites, all of which are working with elite universities, companies and organizations, you're really getting a great number of amazing free courses from the best possible resources to build skills and improve your professional prospects and, most likely, your salary as well.
There even more still (take Skillfeed, for example), as this market is expanding while I write. There is no way I could write about them all. This compilation consists of those that I or others I know have had some experience with, or I have seen them mentioned and linked in other resources I deem reliable.
Another great thing about this community is that the goal is improvement, whether it is personal or professional, and the sites work with a lot of the same top-tier institutions, so you aren't getting an inferior product by going with one site over another. This is a rapidly growing market that increases accessibility, and I want anyone I can reach to have the best tools available to improve their skills and themselves.
The Internet is definitely the most valuable thing to come to fruition in recent history, and the affects of its presence are immeasurable. With it we are now able to take something that used to be physical and static (a class in a room at a specific time) and turn into something digital, flexible and more accessible.
An education is something that all people deserve, so I see this burgeoning trend as a huge opportunity and turning point for the way we access education. Free online learning allows users to stay on top of the evolving professional world we function in and approach in the future. No cost professional development and skill building with minimal short term commitment is something that I think all of us can be on board with.
As a friend of mine would say, "I support it."
Disclaimer: I get no commissions and have no affiliations with any of the above businesses or linked content. If you decide to take a paid course with one of these online institutions, I make no monetary gain. The words in this article come from objective observation and not a monetary motivation. Thank you for reading.
Damn straight it is! Chances are if you are looking for online courses for professional and personal development, you want something that's transformative. The courses offered include, but are not limited to, technology, business, general education, and creative arts. Some courses are free and some are paid, but if you choose to pay, it's as the president of SkilledUp said, "[The courses] can provide true return on investment of both time and money."
 |
| List of Udemy course topics |
On this website you can take free courses, but they heavily promote their paid courses that come in a range of packages at a range of prices. You want to learn how to develop websites and build apps? They've got you covered. You want to learn marketing strategies to meet the demand of the internet marketplace? They've got courses to meet your needs. Just have a look at the range of topics of which courses are offered on the right.
They have some really good simple skill courses, like how to increase web traffic with hashtagging, and implement effective time management strategies in your daily life (which many of us should probably sign up for). Also, for about the cost of a dinner and a beer at your favorite restaurant, plus tip ($25), you can learn how to effectively grow a YouTube channel for monetization. If you want to swing for the fence, you can take a course in becoming a profitable photoshop and web design freelancer for $499. It may sound a little steep, but the return on that investment is no doubt going to make you forget about that small dent once you are getting freelance gigs that pay equal or more for a day's worth of work.
6. EDUCAUSE - "Uncommon Thinking for the Common Good"
This one is a little more specialized, but is worth including because they really offer a wealth of valuable resources. The goal at EDUCAUSE is to provide IT professionals with a platform to improve higher education, but that doesn't mean you need to be an IT professional to benefit from their programs and services.
Their membership institutions, corporations, associations and other organizations contribute to the mission at EDUCAUSE by focusing on specific processes that acknowledge and promote the importance of IT in higher education. They do research and publish findings, hold conferences and special events both in a variety of physical locations and online to promote their mission. They provide career development courses online, and provide a place for professionals to reach out beyond state and national borders to broaden their network and help each other develop professionally. So, the highlight here is that the site also offers good peer-to-peer network development similar to LinkedIn, but with the added bonus that you are likely somehow collaborating with your network through the site.
7. Class Central - Free Online Education
This site is super cool. It aggregates MOOCs from Coursera, Udacity, edX and many others so that you can search the courses of multiple sites at once instead jumping between them to find the right courses for you. As you can see in the screen capture from their homepage below, the institutions that offer courses include world renowned universities. With it offering more than just the courses from the aforementioned sites, all of which are working with elite universities, companies and organizations, you're really getting a great number of amazing free courses from the best possible resources to build skills and improve your professional prospects and, most likely, your salary as well.
 |
| That is my favorite 4-letter 'f' word combined with my favorite 'e' word |
There even more still (take Skillfeed, for example), as this market is expanding while I write. There is no way I could write about them all. This compilation consists of those that I or others I know have had some experience with, or I have seen them mentioned and linked in other resources I deem reliable.
Another great thing about this community is that the goal is improvement, whether it is personal or professional, and the sites work with a lot of the same top-tier institutions, so you aren't getting an inferior product by going with one site over another. This is a rapidly growing market that increases accessibility, and I want anyone I can reach to have the best tools available to improve their skills and themselves.
The Internet is definitely the most valuable thing to come to fruition in recent history, and the affects of its presence are immeasurable. With it we are now able to take something that used to be physical and static (a class in a room at a specific time) and turn into something digital, flexible and more accessible.
An education is something that all people deserve, so I see this burgeoning trend as a huge opportunity and turning point for the way we access education. Free online learning allows users to stay on top of the evolving professional world we function in and approach in the future. No cost professional development and skill building with minimal short term commitment is something that I think all of us can be on board with.
As a friend of mine would say, "I support it."
Disclaimer: I get no commissions and have no affiliations with any of the above businesses or linked content. If you decide to take a paid course with one of these online institutions, I make no monetary gain. The words in this article come from objective observation and not a monetary motivation. Thank you for reading.
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