Do you have some spare time this summer? Why not invest in yourself and learn new things via the Internet? Perhaps, some basic concepts on programming, coding or learn online marketing, new technologies and languages, stocks and trading, and a myriad of subjects and courses. In line with the 14 parts of the crowd economy, these massive open online courses tap the mass collaboration and online communities slices and are shaping the future of education.
“The global eLearning Market is expected to reach $107 billion by 2015 while the global self-paced eLearning market reached $32.1 billion in revenue in 2010,” according to the e-learning industry.
Education, thanks to Internet, has now beyond walls and classrooms and a lot of options are available for cheap. So, aside from sand, sun, and beaches, here are 5 web-based platforms to make your summer productive.
Codecademy
Is programming for the geeks only? With technology shaping our future, it’s a good investment to learn even the basics and anyone can do it. Bill Gates once said, “Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains,” so be hungry for new stuff. At Codecademy, you can learn to code interactively for free. They offer 8 different programming classes from Python to JavaScript to Angular to jQuery just to name a few, and you can learn at your own pace.
Coursera
Learning is a lifelong process, and what’s more, learning doesn’t have to come from brick and mortal institutions only either. Today you can learn from more than 120 top universities around the world via Coursera. This for profit e-learning platform has democratized education through its online courses by partnering with top universities like Yale, Stanford, Princeton and many others. Learn Cryptography 1, Social Psychology, Economics on Money, as if you’re in their classrooms.
Open University
Another home of online learning is the Open University, “a great place to get an idea of what to expect from university study.” The platform offers 800 courses to students and comes with three types of free courses: open courses, badged open courses, and study units. While these courses “do not carry formal credit towards qualification,” majority of them allows you to study at your own pace.
Khan Academy
Salman Khan, an educator and the owner of the non-profit web-based platform, Khan Academy wants “to provide free world-class education for everyone” and that vision was translated into reality. What you can learn from the site? Biology, Programming, Math, Science, Economics well… the list is endless. It’s “for free, for everyone, forever.” Plus, the experience itself is interactive and at your own pace.
EdX
“Start your summer off right,” says edX. Similar to Open University and Coursera, the e-learning website offers free courses from top universities, in partnership with MIT, Berkley, Harvard, to name a few. As of this writing, they offer summer classes online. You can register and check out how their program works, plus you’ll meet new friends and enjoy their interactive classes.
The future of education and exponential technologies
With the abundance of resources and e-learning tools, the opportunities for the next generation and us are limitless. “Exponential progress is now showing up in dozens of arenas: networks, sensors, robotics, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, genomics, digital medicine, nanotechnology—to name only a few” as Peter Diamandis, CEO of XPRIZE, writes in his book titled ‘Bold’.
There’s more to talk about in education and exponential technologies aside from these MOOCs that are making an impact on a global scale; at the Crowdsourcing Week Europe 2015, Zenia Tata, Executive Director of XPRIZE is one of our speakers who will share her insights of global learning and new ways to disrupt the education sector using exponential technologies.
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