Free Courses

lily_the_pink

The coursera link is

http://www.coursera.org/landing/hub.php

The courses themselves are run by MIT, Stanford and Berkley

The Model Thinking course is very interesting for many different fields - started last week but if possible to late register all the videos are online, and there will be a certificate if u take the tests

The Computer Science 101 looks interesting too for some IT basics (includes some programming)

Around 40,000 on the Model thinking course from all sorts of countries

Jayne_B_3

Good find cheers!

The9uru

henrypootle wrote: »

Try alison .com for free courses

I did one of there courses recently and think its pretty good even if you have to pay for the certificate.

ripongrammargirl

Going back to the original thread posting of Vision2learn.
After getting emails from this company I was a bit sceptical as nothing is free these days.
I applied for the level 2 in Equality and Diversity course in June 2012. I got all the forms to complete within 1 week of applying through the online link. After a week I was assigned to Brooklands College near Somerset (I am in West Yorkshire!).
I got the official welcome call to start the course at the very minute the Olympic torch was due to run past me in North Yorkshire in June and started the course the following Monday.
The online material was very basic, and although I have been out of the workplace for 5 years, (due to disability), I found some of it to be a bit patronising, although it did open up a whole new world of activities in my area after doing research to answer the questions.
I completed the whole course by the beginning of September, without requiring any assistance from the tutor, who was changed halfway through to another and then was changed back to original this week (Jan 2013). Nobody ever replied to the v-mails anyway. There was nobody on any of the forums at the college to talk to so it was very much isolated.
The modules were assessed within 3 weeks of sending it in for marking.
All the college info etc states that certificates will be sent within 12 weeks of completion. It is now over 4 months since I finished the course and still no certificate.
Just before Christmas 2012 I v-mailed the college tutor to enquire (the substitute) who replied with a "no idea" and forwarded me to the college course administrator. They did not even respond (and still have not despite several v-mails directly to them). I got a reply from someone else who said they had forwarded my enquiry to another person. It was only after much research that I discovered this person was someone from Vision2learn, also known as creating careers limited.
They said that the college had received my cerificate before Christmas and it would be with me shortly. It never came. I emailed her again and after a week or so she came back to me with another tale: the college had applied for my certificate but it had not been received by the awarding body yet so the college did not have it. Fast forward to 15 January 2013 when I received a reply to my email of "where is my certifcate?" The response was that some courses at the college were being verified by an external moderator and my course might be one of them. She would keep me updated. I have heard nothing since this date of 15th January. I have v-mailed dierctly to the college course administrator again and also the original (and returned) course tutor. I have heard nothing.:mad:
I am beginning to think this whole vision2learn thing is a scam for a company to get government funding.
I am absolutely appalled by the whole thing as I put a lot of effort into this course in the hope of maybe getting a little job at the end of it, just to show I have done something with my time out of the workplace (I cannot afford to pay for any course). If I ever hear anything further or actaully get thes certificate I will let everyone know..... don't hold your breath!:eek:

halight

Thanks for the link.

clare64

I've just had a look but I can not find any colleges in the uk - could someone tell me where they are please?
Clarex

Charlotte49

Just finished my first course with Coursera, really was brilliant, can't recommend it highly enough. I've already started my second one which is slightly longer and more difficult, but the quality of course materials is fantastic.

littlewren

I don't like the Coursera website! It won't let me view anything as it keeps saying there's a problem running scripts as I'm using an outdated browser. Well, I'm running IE8 and don't want to upgrade to IE9. Every other single website runs just fine on IE8 so why not this one? :mad:

Zanderman

littlewren wrote: »

I don't like the Coursera website! It won't let me view anything as it keeps saying there's a problem running scripts as I'm using an outdated browser. Well, I'm running IE8 and don't want to upgrade to IE9. Every other single website runs just fine on IE8 so why not this one? :mad:

If you don't want IE9 and coursera won't run on IE8 just download a different browser like Chrome or Firefox. There are lots out there but those two are perhaps most popular, at least for windows

You can still use IE8 for non-course stuff, and just use Chrome, Firefox, or whatever for the course.

hth

janfelton

There are many for profit and not for profit organizations for instance Udemy, Udacity, Khan academy, RDI where online courses can be taken for professional growth without having to leave the job.