According to a recent article in Money magazine, the cost of a college education has risen 439% since 1982. Many universities have been raising tuition at 2-4 times the rate of inflation. In fact the rise in college tuition almost rivals the out-of-control rise in health care costs in this country.

But as college becomes more and more unaffordable something interesting is happening in parallel. The opportunities for free online learning is mushrooming. This does not include degree or accredited programs but rather the opportunity to learn a subject, language, or discipline for free online. TipHero decided to explore some of the free online learning opportunities now available.

Professor Lewin

Before Professor Lewin ever gives a live lecture in front of his students he delivers his lecture three times to an empty classroom. He rehearses much like a symphony would for an upcoming performance – and the outcome is just as magical. He estimates that as much as 40 hours of preparation go into delivering a single lecture. He captivates his audience with thought-provoking demonstrations and his material shines much like a symphony by Beethoven or Vivaldi would in the hands of a master conductor. Mr. Lewin’s symphony is introductory physics which he teaches to freshman and sophomore students at MIT. He says of his students “I want them to see the beauty of physics. I want them to love physics”.

We would all love to learn from a professor as dedicated as Professor Lewin, unfortunately you would need to have a stellar academic record in high school, nail your SATs, and face a tuition bill of nearly $50,000 per year to get into such a highly regarded academic institution as MIT. Or you could sit snuggly in your pajamas, hot chocolate in hand, and visit MIT’s Open Courseware site and pull up Professor Lewin’s syllabus, lecture notes, assignments, exams, and videos of class lectures, all online, and all for free. An unbelievable price to pay to learn from an extraordinary professor.

Here’s a Short Video of Professor Lewin:

OpenCourseWare

In 2000, the faculty at MIT made a simple yet profound and revolutionary decision. They would put all of the course materials from the 1,800 classes offered by MIT online, and offer them free of charge to everyone. The courseware includes: syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and exams. Their open courseware site also includes 1,000 hours of classroom instruction on video. The program is not a substitute for attending MIT, nor does the open courseware program offer degrees, or access to professors. But it does afford you the opportunity to follow and study classes from 33 academic disciplines at MIT.

So far the open courseware program at MIT has been a resounding success. The program has received over 48 million visitors from virtually every country on earth; and logs over 1 million visits per month. Professor Lewin’s lectures have made him an online celebrity, his online lectures garnering millions of views. He’s received over 1,000 letters from people all around the world telling him how his lectures have impacted their lives. He says he receives lots of letters from retirees who say his lectures put new energy into their lives.

Other universities such as Berkeley, Arizona State, John Hopkins, and Notre Dame have followed MIT’s lead and joined the open courseware movement and published their courses online. Today over 50 institutions worldwide are publishing their course materials for free online, with 30 more projects underway. Student newspaper editorials at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Duke, and Penn have all called for Open Courseware to be offered at their schools.

I’ve included links to Open Courseware resources at the end of this article.

Itunes

Another interesting development in free online education is Itunes U, which features free lectures on your Ipod from over 100 universities including: Stanford, Yale, Clemson, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Berkeley, Duke and many other top universities. You can find lectures on pretty much anything under the sun, from string theory to medieval literature to psychology.

I’m an entrepreneur so I’m particularly interested in business lectures. One of the things I missed out on by not attending an elite university is the guest lectures from business leaders and successful entrepreneurs. With Itunes U I can drop in on these lectures at any time. Stanford features a guest speaker series which includes dozens of talks by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and CEOs. Duke also features a distinguished speaker series where you can listen to talks by CEOs from UPS, Dell, Chiquita, JP Morgan Chase, and American Express among others.

In addition to Itunes U, Itunes also offers educational podcasts on foreign languages and grammar. It’s great to be able to exercise your mind and your body at the same time by popping in a foreign language or grammar lecture into your ipod and heading out for a walk.

Additional Resources:

MIT OpenCourseWare Site

MIT: Professor Lewin – 8.01 Physics I: Classical Mechanics

OpenCourseWare Consortium

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Photo credit: laffy4k