Increasing Popularity of Free Online Courses is Good News for Broke College Students

Most of today’s college students have two main goals in mind: save money and earn their degree. The increasing popularity of free online university courses can help with both of those.

Much like Helsinki University free course on Artificial Intelligence, multiple US schools are now offering free online courses open to the general public.

EdX, which was founded by Harvard University and MIT in 2012, offers online courses from over 130 top colleges and universities. Subjects range from architecture to music, with some of the most popular subjects including computer science, engineering, and language. You can also opt to pay $49 to receive an “instructor-certified” certificate that can serve as a great resume booster for potential job prospects.

Similarly, Coursera offers free online courses, but they also divided up into three areas of intensity to best suit the individual’s needs.

Created in 2012 by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng – two Computer Science professors at Stanford University – the site offers a 4-6 week “Courses” section priced from $29-99, a 4-6 month “Specializations” section, for $39-79 per month, and a 1-3 year Online Degree program, ranging from $15-25,000.

Founded on the principles of being able to share one’s knowledge easily and accessibly with the world, Coursera offers top-quality education for an extremely reasonable price.

So if you have some free time this summer and want to catch up on your college credits, or just have an interest in learning a new skill, look no further than the vast wonders of the internet, where the world (and knowledge) is at your fingertips.