Get Smrt
January 12, 2011 4:42 PM Subscribe
openculture.com is offering hundreds of links to free online courses from the top universities in the United States (and Oxford).
I'd like to click the link, but first I need to know where on my computer do I shove this £27,000?
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 5:17 PM on January 12, 2011
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 5:17 PM on January 12, 2011
You know, in my day studying at Oxford actually meant something. Now anyone can do it? Bloody hell, next they'll be letting women vote.
posted by dougrayrankin at 5:54 PM on January 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by dougrayrankin at 5:54 PM on January 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
Don't miss the chance to learn abstract algebra from the always entertaining Dick Gross.
posted by escabeche at 6:01 PM on January 12, 2011
posted by escabeche at 6:01 PM on January 12, 2011
The internet has changed the nature of a diploma from being (in most cases) the sole signifier of a formal education to a bond that is redeemable from you by the financier of your education and redeemable by you from your employer.
Do I have this right? I'm a junior college guy and Oxford means shoes to me.
I'm angry because the internet has taken away all my excuses for not learning.
Great post gman.
posted by vapidave at 6:53 PM on January 12, 2011
Do I have this right? I'm a junior college guy and Oxford means shoes to me.
I'm angry because the internet has taken away all my excuses for not learning.
Great post gman.
posted by vapidave at 6:53 PM on January 12, 2011
Thanks Gman. :)
As an aside, wtf is up with iTunesU and so many universities putting their content nowhere else? It's frigging impossible to get that content without a damned iTunes account which I *do not want* (used to be possible, but very hard, now just impossible). Drives me nuts I tell you. I bet google or someone else would host it for free if they asked.
posted by smoke at 8:00 PM on January 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
As an aside, wtf is up with iTunesU and so many universities putting their content nowhere else? It's frigging impossible to get that content without a damned iTunes account which I *do not want* (used to be possible, but very hard, now just impossible). Drives me nuts I tell you. I bet google or someone else would host it for free if they asked.
posted by smoke at 8:00 PM on January 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
I wish Yale would do more video courses, they are the best IMO, I've watched out the John Merriman history courses and waiting for more.. French history never better.
posted by stbalbach at 9:15 PM on January 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by stbalbach at 9:15 PM on January 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
"As an aside, wtf is up with iTunesU and so many universities putting their content nowhere else? It's frigging impossible to get that content without a damned iTunes account which I *do not want* (used to be possible, but very hard, now just impossible). Drives me nuts I tell you. I bet google or someone else would host it for free if they asked."
I'm thinking of making a website for this; the actual video and MP3 are almost all hosted on the servers of the institutions concerned, and they just provide Apple RSS feeds. You wouldn't think the institutions would have an issue with either providing the RSS feed URL, or an alternate feed.
posted by jaduncan at 5:09 AM on January 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'm thinking of making a website for this; the actual video and MP3 are almost all hosted on the servers of the institutions concerned, and they just provide Apple RSS feeds. You wouldn't think the institutions would have an issue with either providing the RSS feed URL, or an alternate feed.
posted by jaduncan at 5:09 AM on January 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
Good thing I spent 200k to take these. #bitter.
Awesome find, thanks.
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:57 AM on January 13, 2011
Awesome find, thanks.
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:57 AM on January 13, 2011
And holy shit, John Searle lecture on Philosophy of Language?! My Thursday night is looking pretty booked...
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:58 AM on January 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:58 AM on January 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
It's a great list, with plenty of great courses. But I thought by now everyone knew that such things exist, and how to find them.
It'd be interesting to know to what extent people actually get around to completing them, and how much they really learn.
I'm in the (possibly rather large) category of people that find lots of these courses fascinating, but generally never get beyond thinking: "Very cool, I must go through that someday."
I got quite a lot of the way through the Hubert Dreyfus ones on Heidegger on iTunes, and I've watched the odd lecture or two from a fair few other series, but I don't think I've ever completed a whole course that way.
It'd probably take something like the MeTa reading group to get me all the way through a course, i.e. people to discuss things with, and a shared schedule to stick to.
posted by philipy at 7:34 AM on January 15, 2011
It'd be interesting to know to what extent people actually get around to completing them, and how much they really learn.
I'm in the (possibly rather large) category of people that find lots of these courses fascinating, but generally never get beyond thinking: "Very cool, I must go through that someday."
I got quite a lot of the way through the Hubert Dreyfus ones on Heidegger on iTunes, and I've watched the odd lecture or two from a fair few other series, but I don't think I've ever completed a whole course that way.
It'd probably take something like the MeTa reading group to get me all the way through a course, i.e. people to discuss things with, and a shared schedule to stick to.
posted by philipy at 7:34 AM on January 15, 2011
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Great to know of all the other available courses, thanks.
posted by bearwife at 4:56 PM on January 12, 2011