Get a College Education for Free

  • Share
  • Read Later

Major colleges and universities like Yale, MIT, and Cal-Berkeley offer online courses, lectures, and class notes free to the public. You won’t earn credit—but you won’t spend a penny either. And you could actually learn something. Who needs an actual degree anyway, right?

A Hartford Courant story describes what’s up, theorizing why colleges are doling out free lessons:

Their rationale? Open the gates to the ivory towers, and make knowledge available to everyone. Most courses can be accessed online. Lectures and video often are available online at YouTube or iTunes. You won’t earn credit or be able to interact with other students or instructors, but if you’ve always wanted to improve your writing, learn more about English literature, quantum mechanics or add to your skill set, this is one way to go.

For a list of some of the participating institutions, including Tufts, the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University, go to www.education-portal.com.

The same story also lists a bunch of DIY home-improvement resources, including online how-to videos and in-store classes covering topics such as fixing a leaky sink and painting kitchen cabinets. They’re all free too.