| A number of well-known colleges and universities offer | | | | 2,000 courses, emphasizes studies in the sciences - |
| free online courses that could save students hundreds | | | | engineering & computer science courses and media |
| to thousands of dollars. While free online courses might | | | | arts & science courses among them - it includes |
| not provide credits toward degrees, they can | | | | programming in areas such as writing and humanistic |
| contribute toward lifelong learning needs that | | | | studies as well. UC Berkeley's free online courses for |
| educators have said are becoming increasingly | | | | the spring 2010 semester come in the form of |
| important. Colleges, universities and technical schools | | | | podcasts and webcasts, its website shows. They |
| such as MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), | | | | include subject areas such as anthropology, |
| UC Berkeley, Yale and Columbia offer free online | | | | psychology, demography, public health, economics and |
| business courses, technology courses, humanities | | | | intro to environmental economics. Students also are |
| courses and more. | | | | able to participate in archived course studies. Michigan |
| Through what's known as an OpenCourseWare | | | | and Penn State universities and Carnegie-Mellon also |
| Consortium, men and women who want to enroll in | | | | are among the institutions providing free online courses. |
| free online courses can study a variety of topics in | | | | There are also online courses that private companies |
| different languages from colleges and universities | | | | provide online at no cost. It's not uncommon for |
| throughout the world. Courses include podcasts, | | | | companies to send their employees to conferences |
| exams and instruction or lectures provided in the form | | | | and workshops as a means of enhancing their |
| of text and YouTube video. Colleges, universities and | | | | knowledge and updating their skills in certain fields. |
| technical schools as early as late 2007 have been | | | | Organizations with different specialties might offer |
| establishing YouTube presences, according to It's | | | | professional webinars that can help small business |
| referred to as YouTubeU. | | | | owners as well. |
| President Barack Obama has reportedly been a | | | | A handful of American colleges and universities take |
| proponent of free online courses. The Obama | | | | the concept of free courses one step further by |
| administration is now drafting a program that would | | | | offering a tuition-free education to those who qualify. |
| help pay community colleges to establish free online | | | | One of the best known, the entirely online University of |
| courses, according to a June Inside Higher Education | | | | the People, according to a January Bloomberg |
| report. The idea is in part to make college studies | | | | Businessweek article tends to draw students from |
| more accessible, and initial preference would go | | | | developing nations. The institution's provost and |
| toward career-oriented courses, the Inside Higher | | | | computer science department chair are leading |
| Education article noted. | | | | educators from Columbia and New York universities, |
| Institutions that offer free online courses through | | | | according to a November 2009 news item on the |
| offerings such as YouTube can benefit from free | | | | University of the People website. |
| public exposure as well, suggests. MIT's free online | | | | Additional tuition-free institutions cited on the Bloomberg |
| course website itself receives more than 1.5 million | | | | Businessweek website include Cooper Union in New |
| page views a month, according to a July report in The | | | | York, the College of the Ozarks in Missouri and Alice |
| MIT OpenCourseWare site was recently awarded a | | | | Lloyd College in Kentucky. Unlike free online courses |
| Science Magazine Science Prize for Online Resources | | | | that don't require application, however, tuition-free |
| in Education (SPORE), according to a July MIT news | | | | institutions require it. The institutions also have varying |
| announcement. | | | | acceptance requirements, the Bloomberg article on the |
| The MIT site, with course materials for more than | | | | web suggests. |