
Free online courses from top universities - andrevoget
http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
======
adpirz
The breadth of open resources has never been greater than it is today, but
unfortunately, it's useless without some semblance of structure. If you have
very specific gaps you're trying to fill, it's easier to pick out from the
lot, but what I think will be more helpful is aggregators making clear tracks,
as many MOOCs have now done (in many cases as paid offerings, although you
usually can audit for free). I'd rather my choice be around what I want to be
able to do or what broad specialty I'd like to pursue and someone else with
the knowledge tells me what specific courses to take--much like we do at
university!

~~~
tenpies
> it's useless without some semblance of structure.

If you are starting out (so literally know too little to provide your own
structure), then looking up student handbooks is a good place to start. Here
is the relevant section of Harvard's:
[https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book/fields-
concentration](https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book/fields-concentration)

You obviously do not get a course for course match, but from there you can
pull up the syllabi or go off course titles.

Personally, I think the biggest weakness with MOOCs is the lack of academic
recognition. I can take a MOOC course from Harvard, do the work, and get no
credit. But if I put down $3,000 and do the same exact course through Harvard
Extension school; all that work is pseudo-magically accredited and can be used
for things like degrees and satisfying pre-requisites. And to be fair, that
$3,000 gets me access to a TA and sometimes the Professor (if they field
questions or host their own office hours), but the price tag for
"accreditation" leaves a foul taste in the mouth.

I hope future generations judge us harshly for this.

~~~
DeusExMachina
> I hope future generations judge us harshly for this.

Although I agree that the accreditation is a problem that needs to still be
solved, it’s with this last sentence that I don’t agree at all.

Judge us harshly for what? For creating all this free and accessible
education, plus the whole infrastructure and technology that makes possible
something that never was?

I find this constant anti-human sentiment and lack of gratitude worrying. As
if everything should be perfect all the time.

~~~
nagvx
I think you are deliberately missing the point of the last line. Of course
free access to a wide variety of education is a good thing - no one is
doubting that.

But gatekeeping recognition for that education behind a paywall ensures that
we are judging students not solely on their ability, but also on the size of
their wallet.

There is nothing "anti-human" about acknowledging that, in an educational era
of plenty, our systems are still failing those without the means to pay.

~~~
DeusExMachina
I have nothing against acknowledging problems. That's how we fix them. What I
take exception to is the sentiment embodied in that sentence.

The gatekeeping behind a paywall issue is not what I was referring to.

But since you bring it up, I don't think that the analysis is so simple.

For one, I agree that there has been an over-inflation in the cost of
universities, at least in the US and the UK (less so in other countries).

This paired with the fact that such education is going down in quality, most
of that money pays useless bureaucracy and committees and you cannot default
on education debt is a serious issue worth considering.

On the other hand, I also think we have to consider other factors.

For one, people value more things that come with a cost. This has been shown
in studies. I recommend on the topic, "Influence", by Cialdini, for example.

In fact, raising fees in the UK seems to have increased attendance (1),
although data seems to be contradictory on this one (and that's why I think
it's a hard problem)

Anecdotally I can also say that in my business people value more the material
they pay for and are more likely to follow through. I know this to be the case
for other businesses too.

We have always to pay attention to the fact that the cure might make things
worse instead of better. This is often the case with this type of
interventions.

For example, countries with higher gender equality actually increase gender
differences instead of reducing them (2). No one expected that, but that is
the result.

(1) [http://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-what-happens-to-
stu...](http://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-what-happens-to-student-
applications-when-university-fees-go-up-39837) (2)
[http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153857)

------
seasonalgrit
I was looking at a course and noticed this:

"This course material is only available in the iTunes U app on iPhone or
iPad."

That's lame. For years, iTunes U materials used to be available in iTunes
store, accessible via macOS and Windows. Now Apple wants me to buy an iPad?
Hell no.

[edited for concision/focus.]

~~~
anonymous5133
Yeah, I've noticed that apple is increasingly locking down their ecosystem as
they strive to meet investor expectations. People need to move away from the
apple ecosystem.

------
itchyjunk
Ah, I would like to learn everything but I actually end up learning nothing.
The blame should go to my own laziness but I prefer blaming the vast number of
choices. If only the brain machine interface was available. I'd download it
all straight to my brain rather than a computer.

------
muxator
Wonderful link, I have bookmarked it.

Unfortunately, if you try to access it through HTTPS, you get an invalid
certificate, and a permanent redirect to the HTTP version. This could be
better, nowadays.

    
    
      $ curl --insecure --verbose https://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
      [...]
      > GET /freeonlinecourses HTTP/1.1
      > 
      < HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
      < Location: http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

~~~
y4mi
i was expecting a github pages with custom domain because of that issue, but
it seems that the server is an AWS EC2 instance, so yeah... he could've just
used lets encrypt.

------
uberswe
3.9 MB and 300 requests to 28 different domains when visiting this website.
It's a really good page but I wish they would cut down a bit on the
advertising and tracking, especially since they try to block anyone with
adblock from viewing the page.

------
a3n
Inaccessible sections (math, at least) with adblocker turned on. Which is
their right.

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=math+courses&t=lm&ia=web](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=math+courses&t=lm&ia=web)

------
DyslexicAtheist
I'd like to also mention this[0] crowd-sourced list of courses[1] on Tech
Ethics. Please add your course/class as well:

[0]
[https://twitter.com/cfiesler/status/931200575873490944](https://twitter.com/cfiesler/status/931200575873490944)

[1]
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jWIrA8jHz5fYAW4h9CkU...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jWIrA8jHz5fYAW4h9CkUD8gKS5V98PDJDymRf8d9vKI/edit#gid=0)

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shmerl
Nice, but too many of them are behind some closed service like iTunes. Such
stuff should be in public access really and not requiring any registration.

~~~
anonymous5133
Agree. I think the best platform for these courses is to just create websites
that aren't relying on some company's distribution network (ie. itunes).

------
Invictus0
I highly recommend Sam Altman's course "How to Start a Startup":
[http://www.openculture.com/2016/07/how-to-start-a-start-
up-a...](http://www.openculture.com/2016/07/how-to-start-a-start-up-a-free-
course-from-y-combinator-taught-at-stanford.html)

I watched it on my lunch breaks, it's a great, thorough introduction.

------
DKnoll
> The Ethics of Jazz (Lecture Series) - Free Online Video - Herbie Hancock,
> Harvard

------
fao_
Most of these links are dead.

Examples:

Russian for Beginners 1 - Dalarna University -- playlist is private

Russian Essentials - Cambridge University -- page does not exist

Introduction to Economics - Martha Olney, UC Berkeley -- youtube playlist does
not exist

