Time to Find Your MOOC – Online Courses For Everybody

MOOCs are online courses aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web.

The MOOC List provides a comprehensive list of the wide variety of online classes available.

MOOCs offer traditional course materials such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets. Many classes also provide interactive user forums to support community interactions between students, professors, and teaching assistants. MOOCs are a recent phenomena, having been first introduced in 2008.  MOOCs have been widely researched, and are a very popular development in distance education.

Some of the MOOC classes you can choose from:

• Psychology of Popularity
• Math in Sports
• Greatest Unsolved Mysteries of the Universe
• World of Wine: From Grape to Glass
• The Reality of Feeling

Psychology of Popularity

You can sign up to take MOOC classes for free, or pay a nominal fee (oftentimes $50) to take a class for credit as part of a certificate program. You can choose from self-paced or structured classes.

By simply signing up for a MOOC, you can join classes taught from universities such as Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Rutgers, Oxford, Hong Kong University, Bombay University, University of Florence, Capetown University, and the list goes on and on.

MOOC classes are also provided by specialized learning entities including:

• Coursera — over 1,000 free classes from 122 partners
• edX — based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, governed by MIT and Harvard; goal is to expand access to education to everyone
• IAI (Institute of Art and Ideas) — watch/think/share — cutting edge debates and talks from the world’s leading thinkers
• The School of Life — devoted to developing emotional intelligence through the help of culture; based in London
• WMA (World Mentoring Academy) — classes from MIT, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, University of Houston, Khan Academy and other leading Universities

Now that you know all about MOOCs, go out and find a class that fits your interests. Then, sign up and enjoy the convenience of online learning, while enriching your understanding of the world.