Previously companies used to spend thousands of dollars on an employee to help get them the training that they needed in order to be successful at their job. Nowadays, if you can't get the job done with the current set of skills you may be out looking for a new job. With millions of people still unemployed, companies aren't hard up to find good talent.
So how does this tie in to free online education? People should always be looking to improve upon their current skill sets. Weather you are trying to improve upon your current position or have an interest in doing something new, knowledge is power and is one way to get you where you want to go.
In addition to this WSJ article here, iTunes is another great resource for free educational tools.
- Twelve top universities Tuesday joined a venture that offers free Internet courses world-wide, in a bet by some of the most prestigious institutions globally on online education.
- The schools agreed to join four others already working with Coursera, a for-profit company founded by two Stanford University computer-science professors. The schools will offer 111 mainly introductory courses this school year, including Galaxies and Cosmology, Equine Nutrition and Contraception: Choice, Cultures and Consequences.
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| Source: AP |
- Critics worry online education waters down the classroom experience. Shanna Smith Jaggars, who studies online higher education as part of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College, said studies show that those taking courses online do no better than traditional students, and at the community-college level, online students are more inclined to drop out of classes. "These courses might be great for certain highly motivated students, but the typical student needs personal interaction and support and encouragement from the teacher," she said.
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