Online free courses provide not just convenience to students but it also encourages studies no matter what the circumstances are. Not everyone can afford studying at the best universities or even paying the fee for a single semester. But does that mean that they should put a stop to their studies? No.
A number of top universities in the world are offering courses online just to facilitate and promote education, and that too free of cost. These courses are offered from the OCW (OpenCourseWare) project. Take a look at the following popular and well-known universities around the world that are offering free, non-credited courses:
University of Michigan
The students enrolled with the OCW courses by University of Michigan can find the assignments, handouts, student presentations, projects and lectures easily from the website. The website even offers the original curriculum of the University of Michigan medical school. The free online courses offered by the university include:
- Chemistry
- Spanish
- Engineering
- Information science
Tufts University
The courses offered by the Tufts University do not really hold any credit value but the students may get access to the lecture notes and homework assignments. The free OCW courses are available to everyone who owns an Internet connection and can log in online for the courses. Most of the free online courses by the Tufts University are in the sciences like:
- Veterinary science
- Dentistry
- Medicine
Carnegie Mellon University
The Carnegie Mellon University has its own courseware program named as Open Learning Initiative. It offers all the material for non-credit online courses using this program. The ‘teach yourself’ method involve a number of self-assessments and lessons in the subjects including:
- English
- Statistics
- French
- Biology
- Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
The OCW credit courses offered by Massachusetts Institute of Technology are provided in form of video, audio and text formats. Some courses are even translated into other languages for making it simpler for the students to understand. The students may access to the exams, assignments and lecture notes, whereas most of the course materials can be easily downloaded from their website. From 2,000+ free graduate and undergraduate courses, following are a few that they offer:
- Biological engineering
- Media arts
- Economics
- Health sciences
- Management
University of California – Berkeley
The free online courses offered by the University of California- Berkeley on their website do not include exams or homework assignments. Archived and current classes are made available as video webcasts and podcasts for the convenience of students around the world. The free videos of the UC Berkeley’s courses date back to 2005. The online courses by the University cover various subjects including:
- Philosophy
- Engineering
- Computer science
- Law
- Astronomy
University of Notre Dame
The OCW by the University of Notre Dame are absolutely free of cost. The self-direct online courses have quizzes, readings, homework and lecture. The courses are available in the areas like:
- Peace studies
- Mathematics
- Theology
- English
University of Massachusetts – Boston
The students of online courses registered at the University of Massachusetts- Boston get the access to the homework assignments, projects and the lecture materials available on the university website. The non-credit offered by them includes:
- Public policy
- Psychology
- History
- Nursing
Yale University
The school records live classrooms lectures and use these video lectures to provide free courses online. The course materials may include exams, quizzes and readings, and also the transcript, audio and video formats of all those live lectures. The non-credit courses by Yale University include:
- Political science
- Psychology
- English
- Organic chemistry
The students registered for the online courses may view the course material for these courses by downloading their ZIP files or by viewing the website.
