You can get a quality education without leaving your desk or sofa and spending a cent on tuition and fees. The article provides you suggestions and information on how to get free education online.

Education doesn’t always come cheap. … Actually, not anymore. It could just be few dollars or even free! And did we say it is not hundreds of miles from your home but one click away from your mouse?

It doesn’t matter if you are a student, home-schooler, teacher, TA, parent wanting to help your child in Calculus, or a harmless Martian just trying to get a head start in Earth Science, free education online is here to help you. Free online education comes in the form of audio lectures, video podcasts and written transcripts though most of these courses will not award any college credits or degrees.

Affiliated with eighteen Nobel laureates and known worldwide for its expertise in cognitive tutoring, Carnegie Mellon University established Open Learning Initiative (CMU-OLI) as CMU’s answer to MIT’s OpenCourseWare (MIT-OCW). Note that CMU-OLI offers two options to use their course materials: the Open & Free Courses- which are all free and the Academic Courses-which charge low per-student maintenance fee.

The Harvard Open Learning Initiative, a Harvard Extension School program, offers eight online courses free in their entirety. Check out their 600+ evening and online courses, many offered for credit at a reasonable tuition rate, if you are interested in exploring what else Harvard Extension School has to offer.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) seventy-eight alumni, faculty, researchers and staff have won Nobel Prizes. The next one could be you- sans the need to go Cambridge, MA. Supporting the dynamic classroom interactions of an MIT education, MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT-OCW) is a free web-based publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects. Try their science courses; they’re top-rate.

Yes, you can now go to Stanford through your iPod. Stanford on iTunes U is an archive of audio and video contents of course lectures and faculty presentations (plus supplemental materials, assignments, and exams) on Apple’s iTunes platform.

Take this. Harvard + MIT = EdX. Imagine getting the best from both worlds…. For free! Equally owned and funded by Harvard and MIT, EdX is a Cambridge-based not-for-profit joint partnership offering online learning to millions of people around the world. EdX will offer Harvard and MIT classes online for free. Now you can get free education online from two top schools at the same time.

A community of hundreds of higher education institutions and associated organizations worldwide, OpenCourseWare Consortium is committed to advancing a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials. Lectures and educational materials from top universities in Japan, Australia and Hongkong are also included.

Many of these courses require books in order to follow the course just like you were a student of the school. You can grab the required books at a fraction of its original cost at BookGator, a social platform where students, instructors, and academia can work together to reduce cost of textbooks and of education in general.

Not intended to replace formal degree at a reputable degree-granting school, free education online courses solves a number of other needs that cannot be handled by regular schools.

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There are a lot of times when we feel that we weren’t treated or rated right in our class. Usually, this happens when we really put a lot of heart into what we do and strive to meet the deadline but the professor was just being unfair. Before we complain, we must first understand how the other end works. And beyond this, we ask ourselves: how should a professor rate my work?

First of all, before the official classes (with lessons) start, the professor should already lay down his grading system. Some professors put huge weight on exams, some on quizzes, and others on the day-to-day oral recitation. This way, students get their focuses right and you don’t always ask yourself “how will a professor rate my work?” and finally start working on getting those numbers done.

Aside from that, it is also important that a professor sends a message to his students that he intends to be fair in the upcoming course run. By laying down a professor’s style, grading system and even the little things that he likes or dislikes, he is implicitly telling the students that he has a standardized way of grading and that every student, with the right motivation and effort, can do well in his subject.

Moreover, a professor should also rate a student with the best interest of the student’s learning. There are professors who hold on to their prides and give very difficult quizzes and exams, as if that gives people the impression that they are super smart and only very few people “get” them. There are also others who give the same exams as the ones they gave 3, 5 or 10 years ago! If you must know, times are changing and there are a lot of new information added every day! At the end of the day, the professor must always think of the student’s welfare and which model helps him to learn more. In fact, he should even be able to adjust his teaching style once in a while.

Lastly, there could also be cultural or developmental differences in the learning pace. For example, a teacher who graduated in Harvard must not subject his students, who are studying in a small college in a developing country, to the same stringent standards. He must also be conscious about the other factors that can affect one’s learning pace and the background. For example, a college freshman in a more developed country/city might not necessarily know the “basics” that this other freshman from a less developed country/city knows. Professors should also include that criteria in ratings, although this is not very common.

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Some outstanding startup businesses focus on using technology and innovation in helping improve the education sector. Those new businesses not just deal on distributing textbooks online; those are also active in using other modern strategies to help students and educators.

Technology innovation can be most helpful in education and its use may not be confined to the four corners of the classroom. Websites and device apps can be effective in teaching children how to read, absorb their school lessons, improve speech, access textbooks, or develop analytical thinking. That is why many businesses focus on the use of technology and innovation to help students, educators, and parents. Those enterprises aim to prove that profitability can be achieved even through social and educational advocacies.

It is notable that some startup businesses that are part of Startup America aim to help use technological innovations in disseminating education to students. Textbooks can now be distributed and accessed online. The use of sophisticated devices catches interest of young people. It is just ideal if student learning can be induced through modern strategies that make use of programs and products that the youth of today actually use. Here are three startup businesses that strive to make a difference in the education sector.

19 Pencils

The Internet-based startup business offers quick and instant access for teachers who need to find resources that can be used in their class lessons. Its beta site features a number of great resources targeted to educators. It serves as a resource generation and sharing tool for teachers especially those in the US. The Website facilitates access to and creation of quizzes and open source textbooks, establishment of class online site, sharing of sites, sharing of resources, and tracking of students’ progress through assessments. Educators who are not Web-savvy can find comfort in the fact that this site is friendly to users.

ActiveGrade

This standard based gradebook provides insights into the strengths and weaknesses of students. It helps educators through targeting their lessons plans, engaging students on individual levels, and improving performance as teachers. The site can facilitate monitoring not just of grading but also of students’ development so that lessons can be tailored, designed, or adjusted to meet their needs. Many educators who use the Website attest that it can help them understand their students more.

Speech with Milo

As an educational platform, Speech with Milo includes iOS apps for iPads and iPhones, which are widely used by students today. Its main goal is to provide engaging, practical, and fun apps to speech language pathologists, teachers, and parents so they can help children in developing basic language skills. The endeavor operates under Doonan Speech Therapy, which in turn offers a broad range of interactive tools for speech therapy that can be utilized for a wide spectrum of children’s needs.

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