Black and fab. 22. Libra. ENFJ.
Bay Area. UC Berkeley Grad: Media Studies.
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seekingwillow:

You don’t need to be in school to improve your education. Check out Coursera!

One of the biggest issues that I continue to see pop up for people, especially within the young adult generation[s], is the problem of being at a loss for readily available, and seemingly ‘affordable’ educational sources, information, and courses. I recently reblogged a post with a brilliant list of 500 FREE online courses from top universities, which was pretty popular. Then I received a suggestion from a lovely follower of mine to check out Courseera, as I might be interested. So, in addition to the previous online free courses post, I present you with yet another amazing and FREE resource for personal mind expansion. Courseera offers dozens of free online courses from various universities such as Princeton, Stanford, University of Michigan, and University of Pennsylvania. 

Below you can view the different types of courses offered on this useful site:

• Mathematics and Statistics
• Healthcare, Medicine, and Biology
• Society, Networks, and Information
• Computer Science
• Economics, Finance, and Business
• Humanities and Social Sciences

Knowledge is power. Educate yourself, explore, and expand!

UPDATE: Within the last few weeks 12 World-Class Universities [new to Coursera]  have added more than 100 courses to be available for FREE on Coursera, in addition to the already spectacular selection! 

Reblogging for those who might have missed it. Coursera is a great educational opportunity we all should take advantage of. 

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Has anyone mentioned it’s a data mine storage base and that you lose all rights to any input; papers, comments, essays, projects and the like you submit? That you ARE PAYING, just not with money?

It might be a good opportunity. It might not. But nothing is EVER free. And to see all these good things touted; brand name this (in terms of university) etc… and no one talking about the actual cost? That disturbs me.

Then again, I’m someone who doesn’t think my information should be sold to the highest bidder. Thus I did laugh at the ‘Knowledge is Power’. Your knowledge. Their power. But at least know that before you sign up, yes. 

Edited: To cut out some of the propaganda. As spreading it, isn’t my personal intent.

^ Reblogging for Willow’s commentary

Y’all know I am one of the people that compulsively read tags and the ToS for contests and free* things, so this isn’t news to me, but in retrospect a post like this should come with a fair warning.

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I suck at procrastination, so I enjoy somewhat structured learning, even from a free* asterisk course/web lecture. I want to acquire the knowledge in a semi-structured way. I don’t mind if a throwaway business assignment is no longer mine once I submit it. I don’t intend to be the next Walter A. Haas; I just want to “sit in” on a course and kick around an assignment to test myself. I don’t really gaf about peer review, or what happens to the work afterwards tbh. 

But a lot of people do not share that attitude, and they should certainly be made aware of the shortcomings of Coursera and (imo) a lot of websites that are associated with this whole entire Unschooling/MOOC/Education Hacking phenom that seems to be gaining popularity.  

I’d go so far as to say that if you’re reallllly interested in Unschooling, something like this isn’t the answer. Unschooling is supposed to be an avenue of educational reform. Coursera is -imo- recycling the exact same curricula you could get anywhere; they’re only putting it online for “free.” 

Here is another article that covers more (shady - YMMV) ways that Coursera can and likely will seek to make money off of you. Including, but not limited to sending students to real world testing spaces for personalized tests, and paid human tutoring, grading or other kinds of personal support.

Link: http://gigaom.com/2012/07/20/how-education-startup-coursera-may-profit-from-free-courses/

Also, here’s a pretty thought provoking post on the value of a Coursera certificate: 

http://morthanveld.tumblr.com/post/28843436148/rant-the-benefits-of-free-online-education