LIBRARY BLOG

Whether you want to touch up on your skillsets, advance your knowledge in your career, want to get a head-start for a new career path, or are just eager to learn something new, MOOCs might be exactly what you need.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are free online courses offered from accredited universities like Harvard, Carnegie Melon, Yale, Oxford, MIT, Georgetown, UC Berkeley and more on host sites like EdX, Alison, and OpenLearning.

They are free for anyone to enroll, and enrollment in the college offering the course or a degree plan are not requirements. There are classes offered for just about everything in a variety of languages, so if you’re passionate about learning new things or want to advance yourself in your career, there’s something to be found for everyone.

A course offered on EdX from Harvard University.

A course offered on Coursera from Stanford University.

A course offered on Alison from the Saylor Foundation.

A course offered on OpenLearning, a host site based in Australia, from Sunway University.

Courses can be self-paced or instructor-paced, but all are formatted to be completely online. You’re not committed to the course either; if you decide it isn’t something you want to complete, there are no penalties for leaving a course unfinished.

MOOCs instruct through individual-based materials like filmed lectures, readings, problem sets; but many MOOCs also include interactive materials like forums and social media discussions to foster a real classroom-like setting among students, professors, and teaching assistants.

This is what it looks like when you enroll in a course offered on Coursera. Even if you chose the non-certification route initially, you can still upgrade the course later if you decide you want the certification. Other host sites function similarly to this when you enroll in a course.

Most sites offer a paid certificate for passing a course, though this route is optional. After enrolling in the free course and seeing what it has to offer, you can pay to receive a valid certification if you decide the course was worth it. If you don’t want the certification, the course is still free. There is no difference between the materials offered either way.

Some sites, like EdX, archive their previous courses for people to view the information at a later date without enrolling. Archived courses don’t offer paid certifications, however.

While there is still a smattering of free courses available, a few host sites like FutureLearn and Coursera require an affordable paid subscription to access some courses and programs for certificates. The free courses the host sites have aren’t any less valuable or accredited, however, and still have the option of awarding certifications.

MOOCs are offered by high-ranking colleges and are led by real experts and professors, so you can trust courses to be more accurate than lots of online resources. This means they’re an affordable way to quell the urge to pick up a new skill that restless learners live with. MOOCs can also be used as supplemental learning for the courses you’re currently or will be enrolled in during college. They’re also a great way to see if online college is right for you or to keep you in a schooling mindset during gap years. The paid certifications offered are completely valid, so you can also get ahead of your peers in school or work by earning certifications in your field. There are countless reasons to enroll in a MOOC. With courses spanning from the basics of mathematics and sciences to more specifics like Medieval Icelandic Sagas and Video Game Writing, there’s a MOOC out there for anyone willing!