What can you do if you want to study computer science in college, but don’t have $50,000 lying around for tuition?
As LifeHacker reports, thanks to app developer aGupieWare, anyone with access to the Internet can take computer science classes from the likes of MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, and other elite institutions. The best part? All of this top-notch education is free. (Yes, you read that right. Free!)
aGupieWare says that their bachelors-level curriculum is cobbled together from numerous available online computer science courses and video lectures from top universities across the country — from Harvard’s Intro to Computer Science to Stanford University’s Programing Paradigms. There are even electives from (California-based) International Technical University’s iPhone App Development series and University of California, Berkeley’s Artificial Intelligence courses.
Granted, you won’t be sitting in an actual classroom or receiving a degree from the institutions, but you can do this on your own time — and even while wearing your pajamas, if you like. Plus, you’ll also be walking away with a load of knowledge, not to mention, be free of debt.
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The program not only works for high school grads who can’t afford college but aspire to be the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerburg (both of whom never actually finished college and are doing just fine), but it also makes sense for working adults looking to gain another set of skills for the workplace or even those interested in a career change.
Not interested in computer science? As Lifehacker notes, this program is just one of many subject matters available at our fingertips. Dubbed Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), there are numerous courses that allow anyone — from high school grads to working adults — to seek a better life through higher education simply by logging online.
With the skyrocketing costs of tuition (not to mention our country’s enormous student loan bubble), the idea of a free education and even tuition-free colleges have the potential to change the face of the education industry. And while you can’t receive an actual bachelor’s degree yet, by the looks of things, you might soon be able to.
Tag: massive open online course
This Could Be the Greatest Business School Hack Ever
What happens when you want to get an MBA education but you don’t have the money, time, or access? For Laurie Pickard, a Rwanda-based USAID worker, her answer was to go online. Thanks to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) the 32-year-old is taking business classes from Harvard, Wharton, and Yale and other elite schools, Poets&Quants reports. Because these classes are free or low-cost, she’s able to do this for a paltry $1000 — all while stationed abroad. According to the report, “If successful, she’ll arguably be the first person in the world to cobble together an MBA program from MOOCs.” Pickard plans to complete 16 courses over two to three years. Although she’s not sitting in an actual classroom or receiving a degree from the institutions, Pickard is saving a fortune. She wrote on her blog, “While I would like to have an MBA, I don’t want to walk away from the experience with $150,000 in debt, thank you very much.”
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Want to Change the World? This Free, Online Course Will Show You How
We are all capable of changing the world; we just need to learn how to do it. For the first time, Wesleyan University, in partnership with the 92nd Street YMCA in New York City, is going to instruct students on the art of social change with their free MOOC (massive open online course), “How to Change the World,” hosted on Coursera. The six-week course, which launched on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, focuses on the world’s most challenging problems, and examines how we can develop “social goods” — which will be defined during class — to create networks of progressive change. Each week, attendees will be instructed on topics ranging from poverty and climate change to education, social networks and activism. Classes will be structured around the following questions: 1. What do we know? 2. Why should we care? 3. What can we do? “Our aim is simple and bold: to put together the facts, the energy and the actions to make a real difference in addressing some of the major problems confronting the world today,” says Wesleyan President Michael Roth, the course instructor. So how can we change the world? Log on to find out.
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