Free on-line classes from MIT, Harvard, Berkeley and more

[Lilyhoney]

at edx.org.

This will be my first time taking an online class. The class I am taking is called Human Health and Global Environmental Change. It starts in a few days. I am excited for an opportunity at learning for free and possibly being part of a solution in the future.

There are many classes to choose from. Take a look, seriously.

Although the programs do not offer college credit, you do receive a certificate of mastery for passing the course.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this info about free classes. I hope you take a look and find something to enrich your world. I want this new way of doing college to be successful so my three year old might have access to the best free/affordable learning available when he is ready.

Lilyhoney

[NYC_SKP]

1. Thanks!

Do you have any links?

[Lilyhoney]

3. Here ya go.

https://www.edx.org/courses

[aikoaiko]

2. Can be very useful for personal edification, but not college credit in most cases.

[Iris]

4. Not yet, anyway.

This is a trend I'm following carefully. There's so much potential for good but a lot of potential for not so good. For example, some state university systems may start using these MOOCs to educate large numbers of freshmen and sophomore level students, taking away the opportunity to learn face-to-face from lower income students who can't afford a private college or university.

On the other hand, I love the idea of people being able to learn throughout their lives, and this could be the beginning of something really amazing.

I'm enrolled in an intro. to guitar course. I don't need college credit for that.

[Lilyhoney]

7. Iris, I would like very much to learn more about MOOC's

So if you can point me in a good direction I would appreciate it. I could just google it of course but since you have been following the trend perhaps you can guide me a bit.

Enjoy the guitar course.


Lilyhoney

[NYC_SKP]

16. Massive Open Online Course....

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course

I like working with this group, ISKME: http://iskme.org/

I've been to two of their December Big Ideas Fests, met and chatted with Bill Ayers at the 2011 BIF.

His rapid fire presentation is worth watching:

[Iris]

49. Love the ISKME site!

Thanks for posting it!

[Iris]

48. Here's a small collection of articles

11 of them from various perspectives. It's really a fascinating topic.

http://www.scoop.it/t/higher-ed-reform/?tag=MOOCs



And the guitar class is great! Ironically, it's form Berklee in Boston and had to postpone the start date b/c they could not go to their office to upload the content back when the bombing happened!

[NYC_SKP]

8. I actually prefer the concept of taking classes to learn rather than to earn a degree.

In my college experience I saw too many who just wanted to pass a course and move on, the only objective being to get the degree.

And then, how many even get a job?

Increasingly, we hear that degrees don't matter if you can't deliver, and many can deliver without a degree, so I say bring on the learning.

And FREE! Wow, that works for low income students, doesn't it?

[Lilyhoney]

13. Free works for me.

I have taken college classes without the goal of the degree. I wanted and needed to learn specific skills so I took the classes and did well because I am a good student.

I am changing my profession and will need to take more classes to improve my abilities but a degree is still not a part of my plan.

In the mean time I just want to learn more about the world around me and the one in which my son will live.



Lilyhoney

[Iris]

47. That assumes a lot

Yes, I love the idea of free education but I don't think low income students should be forced into MOOCs, at least not without serious consideration. There's a lot to be gained in a traditional college experience that has nothing to do with classes, and as far as getting a job, most college graduates do. All the statistic bear that out.

A giant culture shift in the way people learn would be interesting, and I'm not against it, just always on the lookout for hidden agendas.

[Lilyhoney]

6. No credit is offered or earned.

But for those of us who learn for the sake of learning this is ideal if any of the classes are of interest.

Lilyhoney

[Ms. Toad]

12. There are options to turn it into credit -

indirectly at least. There are various testing options which can be used to earn college credit for life experience by establishing you know the subject matter. It costs a bit - but since you can do the work and learn the material before plunking down money for tests, it is a pretty good deal.

[Lilyhoney]

18. I did not know this.

I will keep this in mind. Thank you for sharing.


Lilyhoney

[Ms. Toad]

26. Here's one place:

http://getcollegecredit.com/

If you go to the institution page you can search for institutions in your state which offer credit for the exams.

There may also be other testing entities - it has been a while since I did a search.

[Lilyhoney]

30. Thanks for the link.

You make this thread rock.


Lilyhoney

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Very cool!

Thank you!

[missingthebigdog]

9. Cool

While these don't offer credit, they offer the knowledge that might enable a person to test out of the courses....

[a la izquierda]

10. I'm a professor.

When these courses take over, how do you propose us educators get paid?

Just out of curiosity. I'm 35 years old.

[Lilyhoney]

15. I do not have an answer to your question.

I will put some thought into your question before I respond. I would like my response to be serious but I only have humor to offer at this time.

Lilyhoney

[Ms. Toad]

19. For now, at least,

there is no risk of them taking over. As an employer, I would accept a CS50x certificate, plus enough demonstrated familiarity with the concepts as a valuable commodity - but that is because I just completed the course and know it is not a watered down version of the Harvard course. The reason I threw in the latter (demonstrated familiarity) is that for most of the problem sets I knew enough programming going in that I could have faked programs that would have generated the output the grading bot was looking for.

In general, there are significant questions about the integrity of coursework (will it be the equivalent of on campus courses) - and the ability of the automated grading (necessary to make the "M" portion of MOOCs possible) to sort clever cheaters from qualified students. It will take quite a while before those questions are worked out.

In the mean time, work with your union to negotiate compensation (I'd suggest on a per registrant basis) for all future uses of your instructional work.

And - I don't think the need for interactive on campus education is likely to vanish. It may shift - rather than having massive intro classes, perhaps more reasonable class sizes will result from shifting some early coursework to MOOC style - perhaps even coinciding with high school classes.

The fact that educational models are rapidly changing, and that it may well require some creative job restructuring, isn't a reason to continue to restrict access to Harvard, MIT, and Stanford quality courses to people who have the money to pay tuition at those schools.

[Lilyhoney]

25. Thank you for responding to the professor's question.

I like the way you think and express your self.


Lilyhoney

[a la izquierda]

42. Thanks for a really reasoned response.

New professors like myself are very worried about it...US historians moreso than those of us who teach area fields (Latin America for me).

And I'm all for the democratization of education. However, in many places, this will be an excuse to slash faculty because no tuition means no revenue and then taxes might go up (I'm thinking of states like Oklahoma here, which is where I went to grad school).

No union at my university, but I may start a chapter once I get tenure.

Cheers and thanks.

[kiva]

39. The love affair with MOOCs is beginning to fade a bit,

at least for degree-seeking students. If you haven't seen this article in the Chronicle http://chronicle.com/blogs/onhiring/a-massively-bad-idea/37193 check it out - it's an excellent critique of why MOOCs are not the amazing solution that some people claimed a year or so ago.

As long as my students struggle just to get the basics of online courses - I have 35 students per class, so time to spend with them - I figure the college would have to be more than their usual batshit crazy to think students would survive in an online class of thousands.

[a la izquierda]

43. Thanks Kiva...

I think you're right and thanks for the link.

[pnwmom]

41. And I would like to know what they learn that they can't get from

reading a textbook that you write.

[caraher]

44. As another professor...

I think part of the answer is being all the things an online course cannot. If all you're doing is "content delivery" then there's no reason your course shouldn't be delivered via the internet instead.

Like it or not, what you have to offer is - you. Yes, your students are taking such-and-such course with Prof. a la izquierda, and not enrolling "Prof. a la izquierda featuring Topic X." But they'll remember you long after many of them forget all the things that were oh-so-important for them to learn.

I've seen the infinite "patience" of the computer touted as an incomparable advantage of the machine in delivering homework (generally in math and science), but the proper word is "indifference," not "patience," and that word cuts both ways. The computer doesn't care how many times it gives the same hint. It also doesn't care whether the student ever gets it right, or about who the student is, or what their dreams and plans and wants and needs and desires are, and therefore it cannot be responsive to any of that.

This is a chance to really re-evaluate what we do and how we do it, and come up with better ways of using our time to guide students. And we also need to fight the battle against anti-intellectual "reforms" that view improving higher education chiefly as a problem in optimum allocation of financial resources for the purpose of cranking out credentials. This involves acknowledging areas where innovations are genuinely helpful but holding the line against "reforms" that compromise genuine education in the name of false "efficiency."

[a la izquierda]

45. Spot on answer.

I think all the points you bring up are valid and important.

[mucifer]

11. I really enjoyed Professor Blight's civil war course from Yale:

http://www.academicearth.org/courses/the-civil-war-and-reconstruction-era-1845-1877

It was great.

[Lilyhoney]

21. Thank you for the link.

I am going to take a look and see if there is something I might be interested in taking.

I am happy to hear you enjoyed you online experience and am pleased to know these resources are being offered and used.


Lilyhoney

[kcjohn1]

28. love it too

Can't recommend it enough. Big audio book fan and listen to his lecture s in a week.

Entertaining and informative.

[Ms. Toad]

14. I just got my certificate in CS50X

(Introductory Computer Science From Harvardx). It will be offered again in the fall (although you can sign up and get access to the materials for the course which just ended right now).

It was fantastic. Not for the faint of heart - I taught BASIC programming for around a decade and have passing knowledge of 3-5 other languages, and it took me ~ 200 hours (on top of multi-tasking while I listened to the lectures). Not for the faint of heart - clearly not a watered down course (about 1% of those who registered received certificates). Great camaraderie in the Discussion section, some quirks scaling from 700 students to 150,000, but far fewer than I would have expected. I would recommend it for anyone who is seriously interested in getting their feet wet in computer science. If you have few commitments you can manage it without any prior experience, but it will be a challenge. Better to have some experience.

[Lilyhoney]

17. Thank you for your feedback.

Congrats on the class!

Are you taking any more classes in the future via edx?

I wanted to take the solid state chemistry out of MIT but I thought it might be a little much for me at the moment. I do not doubt the class I am taking out of Harvard will be challenging. I look forward to the discussion portion of the program.

Again thanks for the positive post.



Lilyhoney

[Ms. Toad]

24. I'm currently enrolled in ER22x

"Justice" at Harvardx - a philosophy class. I'm not putting anywhere near the time into it (but that was true of "soft" classes I took in college as well). It is good and interesting - but I'm just doing it for fun.

I took CS50x because I needed to update some of my programming knowledge in connection with analyzing whether a patent granted in the mid-90s was for something that was really newly invented. I could have dropped the course about halfway through - or just listened to the lectures - but I was having enough fun I decided to stick it out.

The stats for the class are kind of fun: https://blog.cs50.net/2013/05/01/0/

As is the heat map with links to videos of each of the final projects: https://expo.cs50.net/

[Lilyhoney]

33. The Justice class looked interesting to me too.

I'm off to look at the link to the stats.


Lilyhoney

[Lilyhoney]

34. Just looked at the stats and heat map. Very cool. nt

[Ms. Toad]

35. Lots of fun -

And having classmates from all over the world made the class quite interesting, and challenging! Educational conversations about things other than computer science, and some cultural assumptions that needed to be checked at the door, and some language difficulties. The most unexpected piece was how seamlessly the students stepped in to fill in the gaps left because we didn't have the opportunity for small group meetings. There were a few regular helpers in the discussion room, but a large portion of the students stuck a hand back to help others who were following them, once they mastered the concept (and, as a long time teacher, I know that teaching someone else is the best way to really make a concept stick).

[Lilyhoney]

36. Since I had my son thre years ago

my world had gotten rather small. I look forward to the global classroom.



"teaching someone else is the best way to really make a concept stick."

So true.


Lilyhoney

[Ms. Toad]

37. I know that feeling.

I moved 50 miles away from all of my friends and family just before I conceived my daughter - and entered into the world of stay at home mom-hood. Instant world shrink!

When she was about a year old, I took a "job" as reporter for the local newspaper, reporting on the local political meetings. I say "job" since it paid about $10 for 5 hours (or more) of work on each story - and the main purpose was to get me out of the house for a couple of hours for some adult contact a few times a week.

Enjoy your courses!

[Sancho]

20. It's interesting that a similar "revolution" was proposed when tv/radio became popular...

In the 70's, I took courses via closed circuit TV. Later, everything from art to astronomy was offered by ETV. For years you could buy "programmed learning" books, language learning cassette tapes, and "Great Courses" on CD or DVD (link: http://www.thegreatcourses.com ).

On line courses (like google and the internet) are wonderful as sources of information, but they don't ensure learning, understanding, or integration with a programmed set of courses any more than previous ways of leaning.

Well designed internet courses will be entertaining and useful for self-motivated learners. There will also be examples of poorly developed information and you'll be wasting time.

We'll see what happens over the next few years.

[Lilyhoney]

22. I agree with you.

On line courses (like google and the internet) are wonderful as sources of information, but they don't ensure learning, understanding, or integration with a programmed set of courses any more than previous ways of leaning.

Well designed internet courses will be entertaining and useful for self-motivated learners. There will also be examples of poorly developed information and you'll be wasting time.

It is a moment of watching to see what happens. Let's hope that we can fix what does not work.


Lilyhoney

[Union Scribe]

23. Cool! I've taken a few courses at Coursera.org

I'll be sure to check Edx out too

[Ms. Toad]

27. I've heard some good feedback about that organization, as well. n/t

[Union Scribe]

31. I've been brushing up on some sciences on there.

It keeps the old noodle elastic

[Ms. Toad]

38. elastic noodles are a whole lot better

than brittle ones...

[Lilyhoney]

29. Thanks for the link.

I will check it out.


My son 3 year old is waving back at your waving smiley. Too stinking cute.


Lilyoney

[Union Scribe]

32. Lol!

I was debating between the waver and this one Glad I made the right choice haha.

[Ghost in the Machine]

40. Open Courseware Consortium -to offer certification and college credit for online courses.......

The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model.


Earn a Certificate by Studying with your Peers
OpenCourseWare Consortium, 20Million Minds Foundation and Excelsior College to offer certification and college credit for online courses in partnership with OpenStudy

http://www.ocwconsortium.org/

Peace,

Ghost

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

46. coursera.org

I've taken 4 courses for fun, I'm not looking for college credit.