20 Free Online Courses from Traditional Colleges and Universities 6

This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer.  She writes about top online colleges for OnlineColleges.net (RSS).

More and more traditional colleges and universities are beginning to offer free online courses to self-learners around the world. Although most of the courses are of the non-credit variety, these freebies do provide quality online education through lectures, readings, assignments, and other self-study materials.  [Nate: You might be able to get college credit for these classes using portfolio assessment.]  Here are 20 free online courses worth checking out:

• Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning – The University of California-Irvine offers nearly one dozen free courses, including this timely course on financial planning.

• Small Business Tax Course – Kutztown University’s Small Business Development Center offers a comprehensive ten-lesson course on small business tax.

• Making the Academic Adjustment to College – This Notre Dame course presents text lectures on reading, learning, and goal-setting strategies for new college students.

• Introduction to Family History Research – This genealogy course from Brigham Young University includes four lessons that teach students how to get started on a family history research project.

• Start Writing Fiction – Of the hundreds of online courses offered free through the Open University’s OpenLearn project, this 12-hour introductory course is the most popular.

• Shakespeare’s Comedies – This three-part course from the University of Washington examines a Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night.

• Media Art I – This studio art course from Capilano College is the first in a series of four free media art courses.

• Furniture Making – MIT’s Furniture Making course provides an overview of furniture history and video lectures that demonstrate furniture-making techniques.

• Practical Electronics – This course, also from MIT, introduces students to basic electronics concepts through videos, labs, and lectures.

• Elementary Astronomy – This College of Eastern Utah course introduces students to astronomy through a series of printable course handouts.

• Geometry I – This free geometry course is just one of dozens of free mathematics courses offered through the University of Oxford.

• Calculus I – The free calculus course from the University of Massachusetts-Boston is the first in a series of three free calculus courses.

• Introduction to Humanities – The free humanities course offered through Dixie State College uses PowerPoint presentations and other materials to introduce students to ideas and developments in Western culture.

• Social Psychology – This course-in-progress from the University of Berkeley examines self and society through audio and video lectures.

• Introduction to Health Policy – This four-module course from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health introduces students to issues in health policy and management.

• Modern Biology – Carnegie Mellon offers several free online courses through their Open Learning Initiative, including this intro-level course in modern biology.

• Medicine I – The many schools at Tufts University offer free courses through the university’s OpenCourseWare program. One of the most popular is this Medicine I course.

• Nutrition – Designed specifically for online learners, this Western Governors University course provides a comprehensive overview of human nutrition.

• Teaching Students with Special Needs – This course from the University of Southern Queensland is for special needs teachers who want to learn more about behavior management in the classroom.

• Intellectual Property and Information Law – The University of Michigan only recently made this course, which includes extensive lectures and assignments, available online to self-learners.

Image Credit: Dimitry B