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Tag: online courses

  • Google Launches New Online Mapping Course

    Google Launches New Online Mapping Course

    Google wants you to teach yourself how to better utilize its various mapping products.

    Google has just launched registration on a brand new online mapping course that they say will allows interested parties to better “harness the world’s most comprehensive and accurate mapping tools.”

    It’s called Mapping with Google, and you can register today. The online courses will begin on June 10th and run through June 24th. Since the courses are made up of online videos and text lessons, students of the Mapping with Google program can complete it at their own pace.

    “Through a combination of video and text lessons, activities, and projects, you’ll learn to do much more than look up directions or find your house from outer space. Tell a story of your favorite locations with rich 3D imagery, or plot sights to see on your upcoming trip and share with your travel buddies. During the course, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from Google experts and collaborate with a worldwide community of participants, via Google+ Hangouts and a course forum,” says program manager Tina Ornduff.

    Anyone who registers will also get an invitation to access the new Google Maps, which the company just revealed a couple of weeks ago at Google I/O.

    Participants can choose to focus on Google Maps, Google Earth, or both. They’re also given the chance to complete a project for which they will earn a certificate from Google.

  • Coursera Offers a Free World-Class Education

    Coursera Offers a Free World-Class Education

    Students across the world can now access online courses from five prestigious American universities (Stanford, Princeton, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan) thanks to an interactive platform called Coursera.

    The site offers dozens of courses that run from 4-12 weeks in duration. The courses fall into the following categories: Humanities and Social Sciences; Computer Science; Mathematics and Statistics; Healthcare, Medicine, and Biology; Economics, Finance, and Business; and Society, Networks, and Information.

    Each course has a YouTube video where the professor pitches a class to prospective students. It also gives a synopsis about the course, some background information about the instructor, a list of frequently asked questions, and sometimes they even post a syllabus.

    I wish more colleges listed courses this way. It would be a great way to boost enrollment because students would be able to get a feel for the instructor and the material that would be covered.

    In the following YouTube video, Michael Kearns, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, pitches his class titled, “Networked Life.”

    According to the course profile, “Networked Life explores recent scientific efforts to explain social, economic and technological structures — and the way these structures interact — on many different scales, from the behavior of individuals or small groups to that of complex networks such as the Internet and the global economy.”

    You can join his class by signing up here.

    Several courses are starting on April 23 so you should register ASAP.

    Completing a course on Coursera will not stand in the place of a course taken at an accredited institution and does not convey academic credit but there are occasions where instructors will grant students a letter of completion.

    Students must be 18 years old to participate (with a few exceptions).

  • MIT’s Free Online Course Enrollment Begins Today

    MIT’s Free Online Course Enrollment Begins Today

    The power and knowledge that education brings to somebody is priceless. MIT is cutting the price for that priceless education down to its namesake – free.

    Bloomberg is reporting that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will begin offering a free online course today that anybody can take. Students around the world can take the class and upon completion will receive a certificate signifying their accomplishment.

    The class titled “6.002x: Circuits and Electronics” is the first free course offered by the school and will begin March 5. The course will focus on the inner-workings of smartphones and other “cool gadgets” according to Anart Agarwal, the lead instructor for the course. Subsequent classes will be offered with a small fee.

    This isn’t the first time that MIT has dabbled in free education and materials for aspiring students. For the past 10 years, the school has provided documents and lecture notes online through its OpenCourseWare program. It’s new MITx initiative will have non-MIT students’ performance assessed and be rewarded certificates if they show mastery in the subject.

    “Anybody anywhere that has the time, motivation, drive to learn this kind of material should be given the opportunity to do so,” MIT Provost L. Rafael Reif said. The new program will feature more interactive features than the current OpenCourseWare does.

    Students will receive video lectures, midterms and final exams, weekly deadlines to complete homework and labs, and access to a discussion forum. The school said that students can expect to spend about 10 hours a week on the course.

    Enrollment in the first course in unlimited, but the college isn’t sure how many students will apply for the program. They do require that students interested in the “introductory course” have a background in advanced physics and mathematics.

    For those interested in free education, you can sign up here.