Getting the Most Out of Your MOOCs

When MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses to the anti-acronym/initialism crowd (I’m right there with you, fam), first became a thing, it was a miraculous new world of opportunity. “You mean I can get a college education FOR FREE?!” As my in-laws in North Dakota might say, “You betcha.” It was a brave, new, cost-effective world. A digital library of Alexandria laid at our feet (maybe a slight exaggeration, but you get my point): Life was good.

Unfortunately, as the idea took off, human nature stepped in and said, “now, how do we make money off of this?” And here we have the introduction of specialized certifications and tracks–certificates you can buy once you’ve finished a course to show your bosses or whoever that ‘hey, I did a thing, and I have proof of it.’ Now, don’t get me wrong–I’m not knocking people for trying to get ahead. I know most companies aren’t going to just take your word for it that you learned a new skill set or enriched your capabilities; they want proof. So, people do what they have to do in this case, thankfully without the added headache of having to pay just for the chance to apply to a brick-and-mortar college, go through all the administrivia that comes along with it, hopefully get accepted, pay MORE money for courses (and parking, and the medical center on campus that you won’t even use, and…), and then try to maintain their sanity while juggling full-time jobs, personal lives, loved ones, and due dates for expansive college papers and the like. I’ve been there. It’s not easy.

My point is, as the MOOC industry became more of a, well, industry, it became harder to find these learning opportunities without a price tag hanging off of it. I don’t know about you, but going into what’s supposed to be an open learning opportunity and seeing a banner about a “Seven-day free trial!” makes my blood run a little cold. When you’ve got a button that reads, “Join For Free!” I’m immediately wondering which part of it ISN’T free and how much it will set me back.

Thankfully, all is not lost. If you poke around in the Googlebox, you’ll find blogs and such dedicated to the pursuit of free learning via MOOCs and other, related avenues. As I began going through course listings in different platforms, I realized something: you can still get access to a lot of this stuff for free, if you pay attention to the fine print. Case in point: Coursera. The current layout of the platform seems designed to make you think you have to pay for access to the classes. For at least some of the material, this isn’t true. Go ahead and poke around in the offerings. They have all sorts of courses, including foreign language courses in Korean, Russian, Chinese, and so on, as well as courses geared toward particular career paths and ones based on more theoretical ideas such as critical thinking, personal development, and specialized concepts in learning.

Once you find something that you think looks promising, go ahead and click on the ‘enroll’ button. Depending on if you’re already logged in with a (free) account, the dialog box that pops up might either offer you the option of the course with the certificate, or without. The certificate version costs money; the one without probably does not, if it doesn’t explicitly say so. Another thing that could happen is a dialog box might open that offers you a limited free trial; don’t panic. If you look down toward the bottom of the box, below all the flashy wording, you’ll probably see a small hyperlink that reads something like ‘audit the course’; that means ‘take it for free.’ That’s the one you want (assuming you don’t need the certificate–if you do, you do you, boo.). So, there will be some differences in the two versions. The version to audit won’t give you access to the quizzes or maybe the associated discussion boards, but you should have access to the video lectures and learning materials, which should suffice. But if you really have that burning NEED to be tested, go poke around Quizlet and see if there’s a related test or quiz on there that can get you that quantifiable fix. No judgment. Get your Hermione Granger on.

Another thing about these classes, at least in Coursera: you can ‘enroll’ in them, and then dig through the course materials to see how you like it. With a legit college course, this usually isn’t an option. But in Coursera, you can go in and watch the lectures in the different program weeks; take what you want, leave what you don’t, like an educational Golden Corral buffet (except not gross or prone to give you intense stomach issues–probably).

My point is, explore the space. Just because something looks like it might cost, it isn’t guaranteed if you read closely and get creative. The Internet itself is a vast expanse of knowledge (and cat videos), but if the MOOCs offer us a more streamlined opportunity to learn, then let’s use it–especially if it’s free.

Let me know what classes you come across and which look the most promising. I’ll be doing more posts on interesting classes and lectures as I come across them.

-h