Free College Classes

Internet University Courses Online

Free college classes lessen the cost of getting an education for self-motivated people who want to study online. With the price of tuition for high learning skyrocketing these days, many people find themselves priced out of the opportunity to get an education without taking on the crippling debt of student loans. But what most people don't know is that many prestigious universities and colleges have gotten into the field of free online college courses, to help people better afford the price of an education.

Some of the most active free university studies programs on the Internet are offered by famous schools which rank among the nation's best, like MIT, Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Carnegie-Mellon University. These aren't just a few random college courses offered by many of these schools. The learning options include hundreds and sometimes thousands of online classes for dedicated students.

Free Online College Courses

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as "MIT", has the largest and best program of free online college courses in the world. MIT is one of the main reasons Boston was the first American city to be called "The Athens of the West". Along with Harvard University, Boston University, private Catholic school Boston College, there are nearly 100 colleges and universities in the Boston area. But MIT has taken the lead in distance learning, as the nation's leading science and technology school should.

MIT offers 2,000 different web courses in the MIT OpenCourseWare program. You can study in subjects like architecture and planning, engineering, management, science, health sciences and technology, cross-disciplinary courses, and humanities, arts, and social sciences. For a full list of the departments involved in Open Course Ware, take a look at MIT's Free Online Course Materials.

Free College Courses for High School Students

Tufts University offers science-based studies in fields like the medical field, veterinary studies, dental courses and nutrition School courses through its OpenCourseWare program. Tufts online free courses are closely related to those of MIT, but you can learn about the aforementioned programs through their health sciences portal. I should mention that many free online courses don't offer credit, certificates, or degrees, so you'll need to be clear about exactly what your educational goals are when studying with the OpenCourseWare. Many high school students want to get a few college credits before they leave high school, either to get a head-start on their classmates or to clep-out of certain college entrance exams. But if you're a student of 16 or 60, using these courses from schools like Tufts and MIT lets you hone your mind in preparation for your coming college workload.

Open University Courses

Another leading free online teaching resource is the Open University. The Open University is a research university and distance learning school operating out of the United Kingdom. The "OU" was created by Royal Charter in 1969 and has been teaching students since 1971. One of its notable features is that most undergraduate coursework takes no account of a student's previous academic record, so your past achievements (or lack thereof) play no part in whether you're accepted into the course or not. The school is funded in part by the higher education resources of the 4 member nations of the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.

Open University has over 600 free course ranging from introductory level to advanced learning. The time to complete a course ranges from 1 to 50 hours. The list of courses includes arts, humanities, psychology, business, management, education, law, science, engineering, technology, mathematics, statistics, childhood, youth, computing, ICT, environment, development, international studies, health, social care, languages, skills, and social science.

Free College Classes for Seniors

The Open Learning Initiative from Carnegie-Mellon University is another of the top distance learning programs in the world. These classes are open to anyone, so a high school senior wanting to see what a college learning experience might be like can take these free online courses and see how they stack up. You can register to track your progress, learn how to get credit for taking such courses, or even use the "Peek in" option for your own personal higher education experience. Carnegie-Mellon offers the entire range of college study experiences, so you never have to wonder what college would be like again. Any high school student curious about their continuing education can use this program--or someone well beyond normal university age who wants to know what might have been.

Stanford University on iTunes

One of the most amazing parts of free distance learning online is how easy it is to learn from top universities. If you have an iTunes account, you can download Stanford University classes through iTunes and have a virtual learning experience from the Harvard of the West. Stanford may be the most respected learning institution west of the Mississippi and you can take its courses off of iTunes. You use a combination of a public website faculty lectures, while you use the CourseWork linked Stanford U program on iTunes for your course-based materials. You'll even be able to access the Stanford U Community on iTunes to get a glimpse of life on the campus and catch a glimmer of the educational experience of attending Stanford itself. We're living in a new age of information and leading American universities like Stanford, MIT, and Cal-Berkeley are out front in this new field of education.

Free College Classes for Credit

Most of the time, free college classes don't qualify you for credit. That might be disappointing to learn, but online college course work is still the cheapest way to get a higher education. Colleges don't have the massive infrastructure costs teaching online, while the mass appeal of online classes lets them draw in a much larger student base. Many of the free college courses you'll use get you back to the original reason of reading and strenuous thinking: to educate yourself and expand the rational thinking abilities of your mind. That's a noble pursuit and one that anyone gains from. Self-improvement is an important part of every human's life. And if you can improve your reasoning abilities, you may get the confidence and learning spark to take online college courses for credit. Or maybe you never take that extra step. You can get training at the university or become educated, but both of them make you a more well-rounded person.