If you’ve watched 'Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray, you're probably
feeling a lot like weatherman Phil Conners (Murray) who visits
Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the Groundhog Day festivities only
to find himself trapped in a time loop. After a few reckless adventures,
Phil eventually decides to use his knowledge of the events of the day
to help others - and along the way he takes classes, learns new skills,
and essentially prepares himself for his "relaunch."
You may still be in the reckless phase of your COVID-19 Groundhog Day
time loop - enjoying the all-day PJ parties, binge-watching "Friends,"
and searching for recipes that can somehow include the semi-sweet
chocolate chips and that old bag of noodles that you have on your
shelf.
But if you've passed that phase and have decided to come out of this
loop a little bit smarter, a little bit more prepared for your relaunch
(or fluent in French), we have some free resources just for you.
Welcome to a land of digital-learning opportunity!
The genesis of online learning
“Distance” learning, using technology to deliver courses, has been
around for a fairly long time. As early as 1976 the first virtual
campus, Coastline Community College, began offering its degree program
entirely through telecommuting courses, also known as telecourses (using
telephone, television, radio, records, and tapes).
In 1981, long before there was an Internet, Western Behavioral
Sciences Institute offered a series of programs that pioneered the use
of teleconferencing. WBSI's School of Management and Strategic Studies
was the very first program to employ online distance education through
the Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES), an early online
conferencing bulletin board system,.
Fast forward to the “Information Age” and 1991 when the World Wide
Web (WWW) opened to the public, tack on the 1998 addition of the Google
search engine, and you online education as we know it today was born.
Now, depending on your educational goals, you now have an almost endless
choice of online learning opportunities, ranging from free hobbyist
information on topics of your choice (just do a Google search, et
voila!) to full online degree programs (which can run into more than $100K), and everything in between.
Which brings us to MOOCs
Typically originating at universities, the first MOOC (“Massive Open
Online Courses” offered to thousands free of charge) to be very
successful was the course "Artificial Intelligence" by Sebastian Thrun
and Peter Norvig from Stanford University in the fall of 2011. More than
160,000 people around the world signed up to learn jointly, the first
time in history that a course was provided to so many students.
By the end of 2019, more than 13,000 MOOCs had been announced or
launched by over 900 universities around the world. In 2019 alone, more
than 2,000 courses were launched by 450 universities. These
partnerships with top universities to develop MOOCs, where students
learn from distinguished professors, adds to MOOCs' legitimacy, experts
say. Although the courses originate at the university level, they are
usually distributed by course providers such as Coursera, EdX, and
Udacity.
How have MOOCs changed?
Historically, free MOOCs typically included video lessons, assigned
reading, assessments and discussion forums. When you “audit” a MOOC in
this manner, you aren’t paying and anyone can enroll, even if you’re not
“qualified” to take the course, and you can stop at any time without
formal consequences.
Now some classes that are still referred to as MOOCs offer a paid
enrollment option that gives you access to all the content, including
paywalled elements such as the verified certificates of completion.
Daphne Koller, president and co-founder of Coursera, told U.S. News
recently, "We see a larger and larger number of our learners, especially
in courses that confer direct benefits – for instance, to one's career –
opting to pay for the certificate.” Along with a credential, students
who pay for MOOCs often gain access to extra features. In many of
Coursera's career-related MOOCs, for example, students might receive
additional feedback from instructors, and sometimes access to
supplemental readings and assessments.
COVID-19 opens access to more classes and opportunities
With the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in unprecedented isolation, many
providers are offering even more free courses using the MOOC model. Not
only that, many courses that previously charged for certificates are
now offering them free - Coursera just announced free certificates for 115 courses.
In addition, Coursera, edX, and Udacity also offer financial aid and
scholarships for certificate programs. To apply, click here for
financial aid information from Coursera, edX, or Udacity.
So what should you take and where can you find it?
You’ll find that just about every subject you can imagine is
available in a MOOC-like online learning setting. You may want to audit
the Berklee College of Music’s “Music for Wellness” course - or you
might want to enroll in edX’s MicroMasters
program “a series of graduate level courses from top universities
designed to advance your career (with) deep learning in a specific
career field (and) recognized by employers for their real job
relevance.” The fact is, there are more 13,000 online courses to choose
from.
So how do you decide? We’ve looked at many lists of online courses and have found that Class Central’s platform
is the most unbiased, easy to use, and thorough. Class Central
aggregates courses from many providers (including edX, Coursera, and
Udacity) to make it easy to find the best courses on almost any subject,
wherever they exist. Focusing primarily on free (or free to audit)
courses from universities and offered through massive open online course
(MOOC) platforms, you can find courses, review courses you’ve taken
(and read other people’s reviews), follow universities, subjects and
courses to receive personalized updates, and plan and track your
learning. They also publish the MOOCReport featuring “analysis and reporting that looks across the landscape of online learning” as well as several lists including “Free Online Learning Due to Coronavirus (Updated Continuously)” and “Free Online Ivy League Courses.”
(Class Central is transparent about how they are funded: through
advertising and affiliate links. They clearly denote ads and sponsored
search results, and their affiliate and advertising relationships don’t
influence the course listing, nor do they affect user reviews.)
Happy Learning
I’d love to hear about your experiences with these online learning models. If you have a story to share, please write to us at info@irelaunch.com, but be sure to reference this blog when you do!
