Open+Courses

==Excellence in education is no longer reserved for those with excess time and money. There are now a variety of courses that cover a variety of topics...for FREE! Below is information on the new trend of open courses online offered for those looking to gain self-paced professional development on interesting topics.==

This article from the New York Times covers the new popularity of massively open online courses or MOOCs. MIT and Harvard are the top universities that began this new non-profit trend, but several universities will be sure to follow. MIT and Harvard officials claim the new online platform will create a global community of online learners while researching pedagogical and technological methods. || Harvard has linked with MIT to establish an online learning community referred to as [|edX]. Several noncredit, //FREE// courses are offered through Harvard Extension School's Open Learning Initiative. There are a wide range of topics with several video tutorials that are given by actual Harvard faculty from Computer Science to Shakespeare. || A //FREE// publication of MIT course materials that covers most all undergraduate as well as graduate course content. Lecture notes, exams, and videos are provided and there is no registration required. Participants are encouraged to go through desired content at their own pace in the privacy of their own homes. While the content is free, there is no access to official degrees or district credits. || A variety of //FREE// courses are provided from self improvement to academic subject areas. Course topics include areas of study such as Family Life, Mathematics, Music and Personal Development. The courses are introduced with beginning, intermediate, and advanced lessons that link to additional articles as well as tools and research. || Introductory courses taught by distinguished Yale professors are offered for //FREE//. Their goal is to offer educational materials for anyone interested in continuing their education. Video, audio, and texts are openly available without any registration required. However course credit, certificates, and degrees are not offered by the university. || A //FREE// site that offers a selection of 2 to 6 hour online training courses surrounding technological content. Registration is required to gain access to the courses gateway page where a listing of free trainings are provided. The courses range from //Creating and Communicating Vision: Leadership and Business Skills// to //Excel 2010 Training: Performing Basic Workbook Tasks.// || Back to Top
 * [[image:nyt.jpeg width="70" height="70" align="left" link="@http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/education/harvard-and-mit-team-up-to-offer-free-online-courses.html"]] || ==**Article Summary**==
 * [[image:pd-leadership/harvard.jpeg width="77" height="76" align="left" link="@http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative"]] || ==**Harvard Open Courses**==
 * [[image:mit.png width="80" height="80" link="@http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/"]] || ==**MIT OpenCourseWare**==
 * [[image:byu.jpeg width="80" height="80" align="left" link="@http://is.byu.edu/site/courses/ocw/index.cfm"]] || ==**BYU Independent Study Online Courses**==
 * [[image:yale.jpeg width="80" height="80" align="left" link="@http://oyc.yale.edu/"]] || ==**Open Yale Courses**==
 * [[image:elc_logo.jpeg width="106" height="61" align="left" link="@http://www.e-learningcenter.com/free.htm"]] || ==**e-Learning Center**==