Completely Free Online College Courses

Take a course in Roman architecture at Yale, study nano technologies at Rice University or learn Chinese Mandarin at Peking University -- all without ever having to leave your house. Colleges and universities from around the globe offer free college-level courses online; you just need a computer with an Internet connection. Some are offered 'on demand' and those usually involve self-guided learning through video and/or audio lectures, while others offer "certificates of completion" or similar documentation. As with any college course, there is a time commitment of a few to several hours per week depending on the subject and instructor. There may be deadlines for turning in work and required participation in class discussions. While individual university or college websites may provide links to free online courses, there are a few very good, tried-and-true aggregate websites where you can "shop" literally thousands of course from hundreds of institutions such as Coursera.org and edX.org. If you're looking for quick enlightenment,TED has excellent audio and video podcasts on a wide-range of topics.