Online Learning Resources

As online learning resources grow, you'll see more of these lists of free online courses and learning tools provided by well-known colleges, as well as lesser-known learning communities. Here are some of my favorites.

Free Online Courses

Free courses offered by top colleges and universities.

• MIT Open Courseware - Free courses, lecture notes, exams, and videos from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Open Yale - Free introductory classes.
• UC Berkeley Webcasts - Archive of free lectures.
• UMassBoston OpenCourseWare - A selection of mostly math and science-based courses.
• Stanford Engineering Everywhere - A selection of computer science, artificial intelligence, and electrical engineering courses.
• Tufts OpenCourseWare - A selection of life science courses.

Free Online Learning Communities

Open-source learning from the resources section of Recordkeeping for Unschoolers:

• Khan Academy - Learn almost anything for free.
• Zero Tuition College - Online community of self-directed learners.
• Wikiversity - Set learning free, preschool to university.

Free Online Learning Tools

Just a few resources from Edudemic's The 100 Best (and free) Online Learning Tools:

• Google for Educators - An enormous amount of information and resources for teachers.
• DiscoverEd - A Creative Commons project to search for open educational resources.
• Sophia Project - Find eight open courseware classes modeled after the MIT OpenCourseWare project.
• Nova Teachers Watch Video Online - Educators can choose from short videos or longer videos from the Nova magazine and TV program.
• YouTube EDU - A special section devoted to education-related videos.
• Academic Earth - Find video courses and lectures from major universities.
• TED - Find inspirational lectures given by fascinating people from all walks of life.
• Edublogs - Get a free blog for your students.
• International Children’s Digital Library - Free online books for children around the world.

You might also enjoy:

• The Techno Constructivist Digital Backpack - A list of child-safe online tools, Web apps and Web 2.0 services children can use, individually and collaboratively, for a wide variety of purposes. The tools have no age restriction, do not require children to create accounts, and may be used by anyone without violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

This long list represents just a few of the many free online learning tools and resources available to learners.