Study online! MIT to offer FOR CREDIT courses free!
Oct 7, 2015 11:39:01 GMT -6
dirkgently, Mystic Wanderer, and 3 more like this
Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2015 11:39:01 GMT -6
MIT and a couple others have been true pioneers in the area of online and highly focused learning. They've been offering free courses that are as real and valuable as a seated one on campus, for roughly 4 years now. In fact, sites like Coursera, EdX, and Alison offer a wide and diverse catalog of course material from an equally diverse range of Universities. Ones such as Harvard, Stanford, MIT and more big name or 'household name' schools are among the offerings. It may be hard to believe...but these are what they claim to be. 100%, truly and REALLY free...for honest to God University level courses, often given at the same time and parallel to the credit course which paying students are taking.
What has been missing in the balance of free courses has been course CREDIT. The importance of that is a simple matter to explain. If you take a course without credit or certification? We'd call that "Self Enrichment"...and it benefits you, only you, and only because you know you did the work and earned the completion. No one else knows that, or has really care that much. If you take a certification course, then you've moved up ... a little bit...to getting a fancy certificate (you can print your own for Basket Weaving or Dog Poop Recovery Specialist..if it floats your boat). The certificate is usually worth most when you've been asked or directed to take the course and get the certificate in relation to work or a professional need. Someone is waiting, and expects your new knowledge to become apparent...and quickly.
Certificate credit isn't likely to land you 'that big job'. Even a cert from Harvard or Yale.
The last step, and what is special here to see from free courses..is college credit. This is the only credit that matters if you're "in it to win it" and get something worth more than the paper its printed on or the ink used to do it with.
Source
(casts a sharp eye toward audience) If some goober out there wants to take issue with $50 spent on the tail end for the Micro-Degree? I suggest one looks at what tuition to the MIT campus runs ..or any major 4 year that exists outside state subsidized systems. $50 is still free, for this kind of thing, and you're paying the time and trouble people took to look at your record...think about it for at least 10-20 seconds...determine you met the requirements (or not) and then process your Micro-Degree. Add a couple zeros to that..for a better feel of what it actually might cost, outside this.
Source: MIT / Financial Aid Facts
Harvard Tuition & Costs
Education today is not for the feint of heart or those light in the wallet. Its a damned expensive proposition, actually ..and those costs assume you got all your non-program classes paid for (debt built) somewhere else first, with 2-4 years having been spent doing that.
So, all in all? Yeah.. $50 is what I'd call free, and not really worth even mentioning as a cost for this sort of thing. It is 100% free, and doesn't even cost THAT much, if you want to take it without the paper on the back end for your "Me" wall.
***
In full disclosure and to give some insight for where it might help? I would NEVER...EVER...recommend taking Online courses, the first time, for paid programs. You don't want money involved when you first see what online course work is, what it is all about, and how it differs from seated courses. I don't care if you've been 6 years in College and University. If you're a virgin to a proper online course? Well... Ever read the old "Guide your own adventure" books, where decisions you make in the story have different page numbers to turn to, to ultimately see an ending you created through the process?Think of online courses that way. If you know the material or are familiar at any level...ahead of time? You'll likely do okay, and perhaps even well. Some people thrive on and swear by online courses.
If you do not know the material and you're taking the course to be educated? That is where I say...don't learn with an online course you paid for.
Sign up for Coursera, Alison or EdX and take yourself a course or two. You can make it easy and take a course on beginner computers ...or you can take a course on advanced concepts of database management, or complex and highly sophisticated programming for industrial applications. I don't recommend something like the last two, unless its your field and your thing ...or you're mentally prepared for spectacular failure, if those aren't areas that really 'get ya going'.
After you've got a couple free university courses under your belt, and to completion of the course? If you liked it?? By all means...go throw some into your local Comm College to get the General Ed courses done cheap (everyone teaches the same crap on Gen Eds...whether its a high power, high PRICE school or Billy Joe Bob's Community College for the Intellectually Challenged. States determine some classes which others won't have ...but outside that? Accreditation is, in part, about making sure people with the same degree went through the same things to get it. Wherever they went to get it done.
So... Live a little! Take a chance! GO FOR IT!
Who couldn't use a Massachusetts Institute of Technology degree (micro or NOT) on their wall for proud display? I know I'd be bursting with pride to place that on my little 'Me' wall.
Whatever you do? Just don't let anyone..EVER...tell you that you can't do it. I've watched people ranging from natural geniuses to people you'd honestly wonder about tying their own shoes every morning ..make it and get a degree of one type or another. You don't NEED one ..and don't let anyone sell you THAT bill of goods either. However, if you WANT one, or could USE a degree for professional development? Folks only hold themselves back to believe they can't do it, and this? I believe as simple fact by experience of working with some very diverse and interesting people at a Midwestern college now.
What has been missing in the balance of free courses has been course CREDIT. The importance of that is a simple matter to explain. If you take a course without credit or certification? We'd call that "Self Enrichment"...and it benefits you, only you, and only because you know you did the work and earned the completion. No one else knows that, or has really care that much. If you take a certification course, then you've moved up ... a little bit...to getting a fancy certificate (you can print your own for Basket Weaving or Dog Poop Recovery Specialist..if it floats your boat). The certificate is usually worth most when you've been asked or directed to take the course and get the certificate in relation to work or a professional need. Someone is waiting, and expects your new knowledge to become apparent...and quickly.
Certificate credit isn't likely to land you 'that big job'. Even a cert from Harvard or Yale.
The last step, and what is special here to see from free courses..is college credit. This is the only credit that matters if you're "in it to win it" and get something worth more than the paper its printed on or the ink used to do it with.
In a pilot project announced Wednesday, students will be able to take a semester of free online courses in one of MIT's graduate programs and then, if they pay a "modest fee," earn a "MicroMaster's" degree, the school said.
The new degree represents half of the university's one-year master's degree program in supply chain management. As part of the pilot project, students who perform well in the online half can apply to finish the second semester on campus, though they would have to pay tuition for that part. At the end, students who start the program online would pay less than those who take the full year on campus.
The fee for the MicroMaster's degree amounts to what it now costs to receive a "verified certificate" for finishing online classes, the university said. Costs vary, but it's often $50 per course.
The new degree represents half of the university's one-year master's degree program in supply chain management. As part of the pilot project, students who perform well in the online half can apply to finish the second semester on campus, though they would have to pay tuition for that part. At the end, students who start the program online would pay less than those who take the full year on campus.
The fee for the MicroMaster's degree amounts to what it now costs to receive a "verified certificate" for finishing online classes, the university said. Costs vary, but it's often $50 per course.
(casts a sharp eye toward audience) If some goober out there wants to take issue with $50 spent on the tail end for the Micro-Degree? I suggest one looks at what tuition to the MIT campus runs ..or any major 4 year that exists outside state subsidized systems. $50 is still free, for this kind of thing, and you're paying the time and trouble people took to look at your record...think about it for at least 10-20 seconds...determine you met the requirements (or not) and then process your Micro-Degree. Add a couple zeros to that..for a better feel of what it actually might cost, outside this.
Graduate Tuition and Living Expenses
Graduate students generally incur greater expenses than undergraduates. Most attend the Institute for a calendar year rather than an academic year, increasing the cost of tuition. In 2014–2015, nine months' tuition and fees is $44,720 (specific programs and departments may have different tuition amounts).* Summer term tuition in 2014 was $14,900 for students enrolled in courses.
Graduate students generally incur greater expenses than undergraduates. Most attend the Institute for a calendar year rather than an academic year, increasing the cost of tuition. In 2014–2015, nine months' tuition and fees is $44,720 (specific programs and departments may have different tuition amounts).* Summer term tuition in 2014 was $14,900 for students enrolled in courses.
Harvard Tuition & Costs
Education today is not for the feint of heart or those light in the wallet. Its a damned expensive proposition, actually ..and those costs assume you got all your non-program classes paid for (debt built) somewhere else first, with 2-4 years having been spent doing that.
So, all in all? Yeah.. $50 is what I'd call free, and not really worth even mentioning as a cost for this sort of thing. It is 100% free, and doesn't even cost THAT much, if you want to take it without the paper on the back end for your "Me" wall.
***
In full disclosure and to give some insight for where it might help? I would NEVER...EVER...recommend taking Online courses, the first time, for paid programs. You don't want money involved when you first see what online course work is, what it is all about, and how it differs from seated courses. I don't care if you've been 6 years in College and University. If you're a virgin to a proper online course? Well... Ever read the old "Guide your own adventure" books, where decisions you make in the story have different page numbers to turn to, to ultimately see an ending you created through the process?Think of online courses that way. If you know the material or are familiar at any level...ahead of time? You'll likely do okay, and perhaps even well. Some people thrive on and swear by online courses.
If you do not know the material and you're taking the course to be educated? That is where I say...don't learn with an online course you paid for.
Sign up for Coursera, Alison or EdX and take yourself a course or two. You can make it easy and take a course on beginner computers ...or you can take a course on advanced concepts of database management, or complex and highly sophisticated programming for industrial applications. I don't recommend something like the last two, unless its your field and your thing ...or you're mentally prepared for spectacular failure, if those aren't areas that really 'get ya going'.
After you've got a couple free university courses under your belt, and to completion of the course? If you liked it?? By all means...go throw some into your local Comm College to get the General Ed courses done cheap (everyone teaches the same crap on Gen Eds...whether its a high power, high PRICE school or Billy Joe Bob's Community College for the Intellectually Challenged. States determine some classes which others won't have ...but outside that? Accreditation is, in part, about making sure people with the same degree went through the same things to get it. Wherever they went to get it done.
So... Live a little! Take a chance! GO FOR IT!
Who couldn't use a Massachusetts Institute of Technology degree (micro or NOT) on their wall for proud display? I know I'd be bursting with pride to place that on my little 'Me' wall.
Whatever you do? Just don't let anyone..EVER...tell you that you can't do it. I've watched people ranging from natural geniuses to people you'd honestly wonder about tying their own shoes every morning ..make it and get a degree of one type or another. You don't NEED one ..and don't let anyone sell you THAT bill of goods either. However, if you WANT one, or could USE a degree for professional development? Folks only hold themselves back to believe they can't do it, and this? I believe as simple fact by experience of working with some very diverse and interesting people at a Midwestern college now.
