I’m always reading and discovering new information online, but I still miss having the structure and guided approach to new subject matter that a traditional college course provides. I thought about taking a few courses at MATC or through the programs at the UW, but they’re not cheap, and I don’t necessarily want to commit 3 hours a night twice a week to something I’m just “doing for fun.”
Luckily for you and me, there’s a better (and cheaper) alternative. You can learn from some of the nation’s best and brightest professors (for free!) from the comfort of your living room couch, thanks to the adoption of “Open Source” education at some of the most prominent universities in the U.S.
I’ve selected a handful (ok, it’s a pretty meaty handful, but there are so many interesting courses I couldn’t limit myself to just 5 or 10) for you to peruse and see if any strike your fancy. You can find another nice listing of interesting courses here via OpenCulture.com.
Stanford makes a nice array of their courses available for free download on iTunes – often including video lectures and lecture notes.
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders
iPhone Application Development
MIT offers more than 1900 courses through their Open CourseWare initiative.
Bestsellers: Detective Fiction
Designing and Leading the Entrepreneurial Organization
Japan in the Age of Samurai – History and Film
Competitive Decision-Making and Negotiation
Dynamic Leadership: Using Improvisation in Business
Writing and Experience: Exploring Self in Society
Writing on Contemporary Issues: Imagining the Future
A smattering of courses from Yale:
The Civil War and Reconstruction Era
The Psychology, Biology, and Politics of Food
University of California – Berkeley (most of these courses are audio-only)
Contemporary Japanese Literature
Introduction to Modern Japanese Literature and Culture
Foundations of American Cyberculture
Have you downloaded/used any open source course materials before? Is it something you could see yourself doing?
