From my childhood, I was raised to not believe in “there is a free lunch”, and hardwired in “there is NO free lunch”.
While this has not changed, the recent experience in the “Massive Open Online Courses” (MOOC) is getting pretty close to be a contradiction – I get something really good without spending $. Since I need to use time (more valuable than $), “there is no free lunch” can still be upheld.
I am writing about it because this is exciting – to know that there could be such a low barrier for many to learn something new, interesting and relevant.
What is MOOC? Service providers offer classes online, often free or at very affordable price for everyone. It is not a new concept. There has been different “Open Learning Institutes” in different countries for many years.
Yet this can be a real deal :
- MOOC trend has capital backing. That means that it has the financial backing to keep doing it and doing it better
- It has the backing of highly regarded universities such as Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley to offer their classes online for free
- It has a reasonable business proposition that the education profile of a person can be matched with the job requirements; and give a different perspective on matching candidates to job positions
- it can turn into a profitable business, by charging for examinations, certification or talent management partnership with commercial corporations.
On paper, it looks promising. On the other hand, it is likely that there would be a lot of drop-outs during this trial phase. To complete an online classes that one has not paid, it requires extra interest level, motivation to learn and discipline to do the homework.
What is better to learn something by doing it – I signed up for a class related to my field of IT management. The course is the same content as offered at the UC Berkeley campus to junior/senior college students. Even mid-way in the course and after many years doing sophiscated IT stuff in corporations, it would be a big lie to not admit that I learn a lot!
If this interests you, check it out …
Try “Massive Open Online Course” in Google Search and spend some time …
Or this recent article sums it up well
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34940845/WSJ%20course%20online%20article0001.pdf
oliviatamccue 
I read about something similar in Readers Digest some time ago, I did not
Search the inclined free courses serious enough but is saw stones interesting courses. some are offered by ivy leagues including Harvard, Yale. You on the other hand are amazingly positive ,love that energy!