How to Take College Courses for Free

With the sluggish job market it’s critical to stay current in your career field and to continue to learn, grow and add new skills so that you remain on the leading edge at your current job. And, if you are unemployed, learning new skills will certainly make you more marketable and perhaps even open up new career doors to explore.

Knowledge is power. Embrace that.

To help you in your life-long quest for knowledge there are a mind-blowing number of highly respected universities that are now offering free online courses, assignments, and lectures via streaming video, podcasts, and lecture notes that are available for download.

iTunes U — Amazing Brain-Power at Your Fingertips

Simply head on over to iTunes U where you will find over 600 colleges with active  iTunes U sites — including Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, and UC Berkeley that distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store. You can learn about the Galapagos Islands, how to start a business, learn Spanish, how to write fiction … the list goes on and on. To begin expanding your brainpower simply review the available courses and lectures and download your selections.

Of course you need to have the iTunes software that you can download here.

Once you’ve got the software installed, simply go to the iTunes Store and then click on the iTunes U tab to begin browsing all the life-long learning opportunities for K-12, colleges, and in the Beyond Campus section you’ll find even more brain-power goodness from museums, public libraries and more.

Also, for the ultimate in portable learning these can be viewed on iPods and on iPhones. Awesome!!

Top Colleges Offering Free Online Courses:

Here are some direct links to noteworthy colleges offering free online courses. A few require a simple email registration, but that’s it. Most don’t even require that. Below is a short list of some of the most renowned colleges and universities that offer free online courses.

• Berklee College of Music
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Gresham College
• Johns Hopkins University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• New York University
• Open University (United Kingdom)
• Stanford University
• Tufts University
• University of California at Berkeley
• University of Notre Dame
• University of Washington
• Utah State University
• Utah Valley State College
• Vanderbilt University
• Yale University

Academic Earth

Another resource for free online courses is AcademicEarth.org. They have a much smaller selection of courses, but they do focus on top schools. Just another option to explore.

Life-long learning is an important and amazing thing, and with free online courses and technology at your fingertips … there are no excuses.

Power up, stretch your skills and be amazing!