By John Crockford
Education Opportunities Online
Coursera (www.coursera.org/) is “a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.”
The OpenCourseWare Consortium (www.ocwconsortium.org/) is “a worldwide community of hundreds of higher education institutions and associated organizations committed to advancing OpenCourseWare and its impact on global education.”
The Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org/) has “over 3,200 videos on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance and history and hundreds of skills to practice…to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.”
Academic Earth (www.academicearth.org/) “aims to provide everyone with the opportunity to earn a world-class education by offering free online classes and online learning tools.”
Wikiversity is “a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects and research for use in all levels, types and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning.”
iTunes U (www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/) provides “an easy way to design and distribute complete courses featuring audio, video, books and other content. And students and lifelong learners can experience your courses for free through a powerful new app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.”
Educational Textbooks Online
Wikibooks (www.wikibooks.org/) is an “open-content textbooks collection that anyone can edit.”
Textbook Revolution (www.textbookrevolution.org/) is “a student-run site dedicated to increasing the use of free educational materials by teachers and professors. We want to get these materials into classrooms. On this site you’ll find links and reviews of textbooks and select educational resources. Some of the books are PDF files, others are viewable online as e-books, or some are simply web sites containing course or multimedia content.”
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John Crockford, a self-described “geek with Luddite sympathies,” is an independent Web site designer and consultant. Contact him at info@johncrockford.com.
