"What are MOOCs?" you may ask. Well, they are Massive Open Online Courses. They are free (unless you choose to donate money, pay for ID-verified certification of completing and passing, or pay for proctored exams.)
Anyway, I could go on and on about the awesomeness of being able to "sit in" on an MIT biology course taught by the esteemed geneticist Eric S. Landers, but I'll let y'all figure that out on your own.
I initially started to look into MOOCs to gain insight into online teaching and get ideas for organizing and developing content for my own online course in social psychology at UCO. (I may have to get over myself and make videos, even my dear honeybunny has begun making videos for LMRoss, Inc. Videos )
And what can I say, I got sucked in. "Oh, I've always been interested in this topic!" "I took this introductory courses 20 years ago, I wonder what's changed?" "Man, I am really rusty on this, I should take some kind of refresher course." "Wow, this wasn't offered where I went to school in the past, I want to take it now!" Yep, I ran down the MOOC rabbit hole faster than Alice in Wonderland. AND I LOVE IT!
The courses I've taken so far are from esteemed universities like Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, and Wellesley. There are courses available from many European universities as well. You can 'audit' a class or try for a 'certificate of completion' which is free, depending on how you want to do it. Many of the courses provide the reading materials for free (although not all of them do) and provide additional/optional readings information for you if you want to explore further. One thing I've noticed, is that even though you may take the same or similar class offered by different places and/or people go ahead and take them all. You can gain different insights and reinforce the basic ideas in your mind.
Here's a list of the various MOOCs I'm enrolled with:
My MOOCS
Which brings me back to the thought that I might be addicted to learning. Anyone want to join me in my madness?
I can already tell that I am going to absolutely LOVE your class on Thursday nights! I am also "addicted to learning" and think I could be a perpetual student! Since I'm fast approaching 40, I think I just might be! :) I would love to attend Dr. Martin Seligman's "Positive Psych" classes @ UPenn. Since I can't just get up and go to PA, I love that there are a great many things he posts online, so that I can get at least SOME of the experience! Would love to know how you A) find the time to take so many classes and B) how you actually find them, especially the FREE ones? Am so looking forward to reading your blog. Will you be updating it regularly during the semester? Have a great week and see you Thursday night! :) Tina Sweeney
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