College Courses Online free classes - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), UC Berkeley, and more!

Anyplace to learn Italian--gratis?

I don't know how good this one is, but am going to give it a shot.

http://www.academicearth.org/

ASIDE Years ago when someone ways attending Oxford or Cambridge, they were said to have been reading at whatever school. The bulk of any college is listening to a grad student and then reading. When I think of it spending thousands just for a reading list it's a little stupid. Yes your lacking the diploma, but if you understand the subject, the lack of a diploma may be gotten around.

In reply to behere said:   ASIDE Years ago when someone ways attending Oxford or Cambridge, they were said to have been reading at whatever school. The bulk of any college is listening to a grad student and then reading. When I think of it spending thousands just for a reading list it's a little stupid. Yes your lacking the diploma, but if you understand the subject, the lack of a diploma may be gotten around.

Apologies if this post comes across as tangential or excessive (please just skip if not interested!),
but FYI, the Brits don't say they are "reading at" university, they say they are reading a subject, such as "reading history" or "reading economics", at a university. For example, "I am reading law at Durham."

The traditional British university system was based on being tutored by a professor (not a grad student), and the classes (which were called "tutorials", not "classes") were very small - maybe just one student, maybe 3, maybe 5. You met with the professor weekly at his/Her Room in the college (not in a classroom) for a couple of hours, just sitting together on comfortable sofas and armchairs usually, and you didn't have lectures by him/her, you just discussed what you had read (based on the readings he/she had assigned you). You also wrote essays based on what you had read, and sometimes you read your essays aloud to the tutor and the other students (if there were any others present).

Sometimes there were lectures given to a larger group of students, but they weren't as frequent or rigidly-structured as in the U.S.

There were no regular tests, there were no quizzes - but at the end of each academic year, there was usually one big written exam. Taking an exam is called "sitting" an exam.

**Of course, laboratory-research-based academic subjects would also require lab work / lab demonstrations, and not be only about chatting with a professor once a week.**

Quite a few professors were lackadaisical about the tutorials, and some students would get away with doing very little work during the academic year.

This system is/was very different from the American system. It goes back hundreds of years.

If you have ever watched the "Inspector Morse" or "Lewis" tv shows on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre", examples of this kind of tutorial taking place in a distinguished professor's room (or set of rooms, very comfortably furnished) at a college can be seen, usually at least once per episode. (However, murders in such environments are not nearly as common as portrayed in those two shows )

Today, many British universities can't afford to teach like that, but remnants of the tutorial system remain, even in the newer "red brick" universities founded in the 60s and 70s, and the converted-from-polytechnics universities of the 90s and 2000s, which are much poorer than Oxford and Cambridge. (Compared to American colleges and universities, even those of a kind of middle-level reputation/size/endowment, the majority of UK universities are much worse off, much poorer.)

Even today, with larger class sizes and more lectures, the teaching style and examination schedule can be pretty different from the American system, depending on the subject.

Indeed, their undergraduate degrees are mainly 3 years long, not 4. And, for those 3 years, they mainly study JUST the one subject their degree will be in - they don't have the requirement (nor even the option) to take different subjects in different departments, like sampling from arts/humanities, sciences, social sciences, languages, etc.

And, if you go to Oxford or Cambridge, and graduate with an undergraduate degree, after a couple of years of being out of university, they generally allow you to put an M.A. after your name, meaning you are given a Masters of Arts qualification without having done any Masters-level work for it. (Nice work if you can get it! )

Therefore, if you are interviewing job candidates and looking at the resume of a candidate who graduated from Oxford or Cambridge, don't automatically be impressed by a Master's degree. However, those universities do also have real Master's programs, naturally, so you can inquire about the nature of the Master's degree if you want to know how valid it is. The "real" Masters degrees from those schools go by other abbreviations, like MPhil for Master of Philosophy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Arts_(Oxbridge_and_Dublin...

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Note: The above is generally true, but there will have been and will be exceptions, of course!

Source: I went to undergrad and graduate school in the UK, did an undergrad degree in the US, and worked at universities in both countries.

Life changing. Thanks and praises!..

This is soooo Awesome!!! The best one out of all of then was www.coursera.com I am enrolled in about 10 so far and the first one starts Monday. The free language one did not work,something to do with the host website. Thanks OP!!

You guys, we still need to keep thanking Bo in order to keep this thread as a sticky. Tell him how handsome he is for extra bonus points.*

*I've never met Bo nor conversed with him privately. Just to add a chuckle to your day.

Any engineering courses like Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics,Kinetics or Mass Transfer? I need to prepare for P.E. and need to get a refresher.

thanks OP

Gnomie said:   Excuse me for yelling.

WHY ISN'T THIS A STICKIE ANYMORE?

Someone else needs to report this thread, and threaten to use bad words.

This thread just was made a sticky, wasn't it? But it's no longer one, already?

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To make a request that a thread be made a sticky, post it on the Fatwallet "Fatwallet" forum.

In the last 2 years I've asked for 2 threads to be made stickies and one was and one wasn't, so it's not a sure thing, but doesn't hurt to ask.

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I made a suggestion in January that they have a list of "really useful" threads from the past 10 years that may not be stickied individually, but are identified in an umbrella list that is under just the one sticky (there would be one sticky for this list on each forum, containing that forum's "really useful threads from the past decade").

This sort of thread here (the college courses one) would be just the kind of thing that I'd put on such a list.

Thanks OP for these great resources!!!

Yay, it's back to a sticky. Thanks, Bo!

Excellent resource!! Much appreciated OP.

This is amazing! thank you so much

I read about this today, and thought that someone might be interested.

Gender Through Comics: A Super MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) coming Spring 2013 that examines how comic books can be used to explore questions of gender identity, stereotypes, and roles. This highly engaging learning experience is designed for college-age and lifelong learners.

The course, led by Christina Blanch of Ball State University, uses a study of comic books incorporating highly interactive video lectures, online discussions between students, and real-time socially driven interviews. Interviews with the comic industry's biggest names such as Terry Moore, Brian K Vaughan, Mark Waid, as well as others address questions of gender representations and constructions involving both men and women.

https://www.canvas.net/courses/gender-through-comic-books

Love this thread

Amazing courses from Stanford University, including SQL (somebody was asking about it)

http://online.stanford.edu/courses/

Thanks!

Wow! I didn't know about all this free college online classes. Will spread the word. Thank you!

Hello all...I love this thread first of all. Does anyone know a good site for nursing? I hate this waiting game at the community colleges. I would love to try nursing courses online. All the science classes are good for 5 years, and mine are already expired. Please help.

Wow! These are great. Thank you very much for posting!