Online courses for free degrees have become a reality thanks to the power of the Internet. Those who can’t afford to pay full tuition can turn to the web. Many of the top universities in the US are now offering courses at no cost online.
Courses on the Internet
Today there are literally thousands of courses available. Many of these courses are offered via the OpenCourseWare (OCW) project. OCW courses are available in different formats including video, audio, text and many others. Other free education materials on the Internet are in the form of Excel worksheets, Word document format, PDF files, webinars and many others.
Many Internet degrees are in English. But some are now available in Spanish, Chinese, French and other languages. Most of these universities offer graduate level and undergraduate course materials. Common subjects like computing, IT, education, business, English, history, the sciences etc are available at no cost. There are courses on technology, health and many others available.
Some universities like Carnegie Mellon use the Open Learning Initiative. These allow people at an introductory college level to study a specific subject. They can do this without any formal instructions. This is applicable in various courses including physics, economics, chemistry, statistics, biology and many more.
Additional Features
Most of these schools allow you to sort the courses via the school (i.e. school of medicine, arts and sciences and so on). These courses also include lecture notes, assignments and other study materials. Stanford University for instance, has put online its extensive interviews, lectures and courses.
These are downloadable and are playable on Macs, PCs, iPods and can be burned on CDs. Others like UC Berkeley offer webcasts of their courses. Other universities have followed suit and are now offering podcasts and webcasts of their courses. Apart from the standard subjects, there are also subjects on philosophy, legal studies, engineering, psychology and computer programming.
Other Information
When choosing a college course, be prepared to spend some time researching online universities. The courses offered differ; if you can get recommendations from friends, it will help. Of course you should also do some research on your own. The Internet however, should make research easier.
Online courses for free degrees are also great for those who want to enhance their knowledge. This can be used to advance their career or improve their working status. Because they are free, you don’t have to worry about money.