Tag: OCW

Free Online Learning for You!

One of my favorite parts of this homeschooling journey has been the opportunity to fill in gaps in my own education. I love learning about history, culture and science.

Over the years I’ve used some online education portals to pursue some amazing classes. Not only is it a great way to pass time while my kids are doing their own work, it’s also a powerful way to demonstrate to them my values around education.

Two textbooks. "Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought" by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. A geology textbook, "Understanding Earth, 5th Edition" by Grotzinger, Jordan, Press, Siever.
Books I used with online courses, Source: BBHS

Here are my fav online learning portals, let me know of your favs in the comments!

EdX.org – This platform was created by Harvard and MIT and hosts courses from colleges and universities around the world. Most courses you can take for free. The first amazing course I took was “The Science of Religion” from the University of British Columbia. I’ve also taken courses on Chinese History, the basics of Neuroscience, Ethics, History of Architecture. Most EdX courses do not require any outside materials or text books, though classes may suggest optional readings. The site is user-friendly, and you can go at your own pace.

MIT OpenCourseWare – From their site: “MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.” I’ve taken an introductory course on Geology through this platform. Compared to EdX.org, OCW isn’t as user friendly. The courses available, however, are actual college-level courses! You will often want to buy or borrow the textbooks for each course. I bought my textbook off eBay for less than $20. If you can get your course’s books from the library, these courses are truly free and high quality.

A few years ago, a homeschooler was in the news for using MIT OpenCourseWare for his entire homeschool education and getting admitted to MIT at age 15.

Coursera – This platform is a lot like EdX. The biggest difference with Coursera is that you need to keep up with each course’s timing. It’s not as relaxed as EdX, but I do think the courses are at a slightly higher level. I haven’t successfully finished a class on Coursera because of the timing issue, but have found some really great topics, such as entomology and fair use copyright law for blogs!

Do you use these online platforms yourself? Do your kids learn from them? Please share your experiences in the comments below!