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Oxford University will offer free online courses in 2017
The highest ranked university in the world will soon join prestigious institutions like Berkeley, Harvard and MIT in offering free massive open online courses (MOOCs). Starting in February 2017, Oxford University will partner with nonprofit online learning platform edX to teach a freely available economics class titled, "From Poverty to Prosperity: Understanding Economic Development."
MIT's online master's courses sound like an incredible deal
Move over University of Phoenix, MIT has announced that you can now obtain a highly-regarded Masters degree in Supply Chain Management (mainly) online. The new 14-week credential is called a MicroMaster's and will be open to anyone and once completed students can get a verified certificate documenting their hard work for a small fee. Undertaken via edX, it is the first MITx course that can be put towards the full masters program, meaning the remainder of the course is only one on-campus semester. "The new combination of online courses and one residential semester will open the SCM program to many more learners," said Professor Yossi Sheffi who runs the SCM program and its online components. By making it open to anyone for free the college is recruiting those who are determined and driven, but aren't sure they can afford a traditional Master's program.
Microsoft teams up with edX to offer free online IT classes
EdX is no stranger to teaming up with tech organizations to offer online courses, and previous partners include the Linux Foundation and even Google. Now, it's Microsoft's turn to join forces with the online learning platform. The company says its courses will help you "build innovative applications, services and experiences on the Microsoft platform" and will be taught by MS experts. There are seven choices open for enrollment at the moment, from basic intro to Office 365 APIs to classes that teach programming with C# and the fundamentals of Windows PowerShell. The best thing about them is that they're free (unless you want a verified certificate for job apps), so they're a great way to spend your downtime if you've always wanted to learn about those topics.
EdX expands range of institutions that can offer free online courses
EdX's open online education system has drawn a lot of interest -- enough interest that the non-profit has just loosened up its membership structure to allow for more participants. The revamp lets 12 additional organizations offer free internet-based courses, including schools as well as non-academic outlets like the International Monetary Fund, the Linux Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. Details of the new programs aren't available beyond the Linux Foundation's plans for an introductory Linux course, but edX's move is bound to improve the diversity of things you can learn without spending a dime on tuition. [Image credit: TU Delft, Flickr]
Google teams up with edX to create the YouTube for online education
Google's big list of open source projects just grew by one -- the company has introduced a new online learning platform called MOOC.org. Despite the name, it's not a website about cows -- MOOC stands for "massive open online courses," and it's a product of the marriage between Mountain View and edX, an educational website by MIT and Harvard. However, while edX only features free courses from affiliated universities, MOOC.org will accept material submitted by other institutions, governments, businesses and even individuals. In short, just about anyone can pitch in -- edX's president even revealed that they want the site to eventually become the "YouTube for MOOCs." The companies have yet to reveal how they'll screen submitted courses for quality and how contributors can earn money, but we'll likely find out when the site launches in mid-2014. Self-motivated folks eager to learn will have to hang out around libraries, campuses and TED talks until then. [Image credit: University of Salford, Flickr]
