Would you like to freshen up your programming skills but you are put off by high tuition fees? That excuse doesn’t work anymore. Some top universities are now offering free online technology courses.
It happened to the music industry. It happened to the book industry. Now the Web is doing its inevitable shakedown with higher education.
Pretigious universities like our own University of Toronto offer free online technology courses. In fact, if you demonstrate mastery in a course you can get a certificate from a course offered by Harvard, MIT or UC Berkeley right now for free!
This means some great online learning opportinities for IT workers looking to upgrade their skills and qualifications. It might even be an option for people just getting started with a career in technology.
Is there a Catch?
The biggest issue is getting credit for your online course work. Employers tend to value traditional education more than online training. But that will change quickly as online training gains traction. When the online course is taught by well known professor from a prestigious school, the value of the training is clear.
Another issue is that sometimes the course materials are available online for free but there is a fee if you want to take exams, receive grades and get credits. Luckily that is changing too!
With the edX intiative from Harvard and MIT, you can earn a certificate of completion for an online course offered by Harvard, MIT or UC Berkeley. With Udacity, you can get free certificate for completing one of their technology courses. Or you can pay a fee to take a test for an additional level of certification.
3 Links for Free Online Technology Courses
Here are a three websites where you can take advantage of this explosion of free online technology courses from top universities:
Coursera
Website: https://www.coursera.org/
Coursera offers online courses from the top universities in the world for anyone to take, for free. In only six months Coursera has enabled 650,000 students from 190 countries to gain access to 43 different university courses.
We hope to give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few. We want to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.
University of Toronto offers free technology courses on Coursera. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You can also get free courses through Coursera from Stanford, Princton and John Hopkins universities to name a few. .
edX-Initiative
Website: https://www.edx.org/
EdX is an free online training initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Currently edX offers free courses from Harvard, MIT and UC Berkeley. The founders are currently working to include additional universities while maintaining the high level of quality that has already been established in their current course offerings.
- Intensive Introduction to Computer Science – An introduction to computer science include algorithms, software development, architecture of computers, computer systems (programming languages, compilers, operating systems, and databases). Problem sets involve extensive programming in C as well as PHP and JavaScript.
Udacity
Website: http://www.udacity.com/
Founder: Sebastian Thrun, former Stanford professor and founding head of Google’s advanced-research X Lab.
Mission: Thrum founded Udacity to spark a teaching revolution in which the world’s best instructors conduct highly interactive online classes that let them reach 100,000 students simultaneously and globally.
Courses: Udacity offers 11 online technology courses right now at http://www.udacity.com/courses
Cost: Taking the courses is free but you can optionally certify your skills online or in a Udacity testing center, for a fee.
More Free Online Technology Courses
- Khan Academy where you can learn almost anything for free
- Google Code University with free Python and C++ courses
- Codecademy – where you can learn to code for free
- SkilledUp – a search engine to find the best online courses
- CodeSchool
The Value of Online Certification Versus Traditional Degrees
- In IT Education: The Future is Free, Brian Bloom says, “For IT employers…e-learning gives a new meaning to what “credentials” mean. Earning a certificate from a free online course can’t be dismissed as substandard or “alternative” in any real sense when these courses are taught by some of the most celebrated academics in the world. Upon completion of these courses, there’s also a demonstrated level of self-motivation and familiarity with technology, which are obviously important in the IT field.”
- In Online University for the Masses, Margaret Wente writes, “A certificate of completion from Coursera or edX (available for a small fee) is not the same as a degree from MIT. But the online entrepreneurs are tackling that, too. They’re already figuring out ways to connect students with job opportunities that are appropriate for their skills. And they’re figuring out how to monitor and administer real exams (also for a small fee).”
- At Stafflink we find that our clients are most concerned with how job candidates have actually used technology skills in real-life projects and on-the-job experience. Certification is important, but references and a portfolio of work is more important. With job candidates coming with degrees from universities all over the world, it’s difficult to compare the relative value of those credentials. But the work a person does speaks for itself. So the real value of online technology training is that you can keep your skills up-to-date on you own schedule for free.
Your Thoughts on Online Tech Courses
Have you taken a technology course online? Do you find that employers value this training?
Please leave a comment to tell us about your experience with online education and getting a job. Do people still need to pay the big bucks to get a traditional degree?
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Couldn’t have asked for anything better today!
Thanks for this amazing article. The insights helped me sort out a lot. Made notes and shall be using the tips right away! 🙂
Thanks for your comment! Glad you found something you needed 🙂
Fantastic piece of writing, I liked the digital tutors download section
Wonderful Read, I liked the electronics lectures mp3 section
Hi Chloe,
Thanks for your comment! So happy you found a course you liked. Hope it leads to work that you love 🙂
Laura
Thanks so much for providing the 3 websites to free online courses. I was reseaching community college tuition and academics and felt hopeless as I am living on unemployment insurance. Now I feel like I won the lottery almost. Thanks so much and I will share the websites.
Hi Doug,
Thanks so much for your comment! There are so many options for free online training that I didn’t even mention in this post because I was focusing on universities. Here are a few more you can check out:
– Khan Academy where you can learn almost anything for free
– Google Code University with free Python and C++ courses
– CodeSchool
– Codecademy – where you can learn to code for free
I wish you the very best with upgrading your skills and I hope you get a job really soon! Let me know how it goes.
Laura