Do you like doing free online courses for fun?

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NewDawn
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

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Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Age: 67
Gender: Female
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Location: Netherlands

14 Oct 2012, 2:12 pm

Tomorrow I'm starting a 12 week course on Experimental Genome Science with the University of Pennsylvania. I love doing online courses, and I'm so grateful that all these wonderful courses have been put online for free. For me it's a dream come true. I love to study history and science, but I do not function well (ok, let's be honest: I do not function at all, crash within 6 weeks) in real life university.

Anyone else doing online courses? Is it easier for you to learn in a familiar place and at your own pace?



OddDuckNash99
Veteran
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14 Oct 2012, 4:05 pm

I've never taken an official online course for fun, but I read textbooks on my own all the time. Most of the science that I know has been self-taught. I have scads of science books on my shelf that I haven't gotten around to yet. A lot of my supplemental knowledge doesn't have a "degree" attached to it, so it's sort of hidden. This is also because a lot of my supplemental knowledge is information on mild special interest science topics that I find fascinating but have no interest in studying for an actual career (e.g., parasitology). But I've recently heard more about online certification courses and such that I might look into more in the future.


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Jaee
Emu Egg
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Joined: 23 Sep 2012
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Location: England

16 Oct 2012, 6:50 am

I'm taking Introduction to Computer Science through EdX/HarvardX online.

I also study maths with the Open University, which is all distance learning but not free.

I did go to a real life university for a year but I couldn't really go to classes and when I did go, I couldn't concentrate. It's much easier for me to learn by myself although I do procrastinate sometimes. It is great that there are so many different courses online.