This is not an article about how to find enough scholarships to pay for your education. This is not just a spammy title meant to grab your attention. This is also not the traditional college class.

There is a new idea floating around out there in the world of higher education. The idea is that knowledge should be free for those who are willing to learn.

Execution of that idea has manifested itself in a few ways. Many professors at prestigious universities such as MIT and Yale have recorded lectures and posted them for free on their schools’ websites. Professors at MIT first made this available in 2002 through the Open Courseware section of MIT’s website. Now, there are over 1800 courses available in 35 subject areas. All of it is completely free. In addition to uploading course lectures, there are lab manuals, assignments, projects and other resources to help students learn in more ways that just lecture.

Another way that top quality education is now available to the masses is through open source textbooks. Flat World Knowledge is a website that will be offering free textbooks as well as affordable alternatives. Currently the site is info only, but they are on track to start releasing textbooks in January.  There fewer options currently available for free textbooks but hopefully, that will gradually change.

The obvious downside to all of these free education materials is that, no matter how much a student can learn for free, no one is going to award them a degree without paying for the credits. So if you are looking to enter a new career or get a promotion based on your level of education, it will be a hard sell without a degree.

Nevertheless, those with a thirst for knowledge and personal enrichment have a large and growing level of free resources available that are produced at a much higher level than the average community college class.

Tags: Career Education, Learning Technologies, Non-Traditional Students, Online Education