Gresham College
A London college that offers free public lectures and lecture series.
"Gresham College lectures have been taking place since Elizabethan times. From spies and break-ins through to Dickens and a flood of gin, here
are some of the highlights from our 400 years of free public lectures."
https://www.gresham.ac.uk
MasterClass
MasterClass allows you to learn more about how to write, cook, run a campaign, and more, by watching some of the world's top experts share their experience and insights in online videos. As of 9/16/2020, $15 per month--billed annually--gives you access to 85 experts in thousands of lessons. The instructors include, for example, Jane Goodall and Margarett Attwood. Browse the list of offerings for free to see whether the topics that are best covered match your interests. https://www.masterclass.com/
For insight into the history and popularity of MasterClass, see the Atlantic Monthly, September 2020.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/what-is-masterclass-actually-selling/614200/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=masthead-newsletter&utm_content=20200815&silverid-ref=NjQzMDcyMzQxMDE0S0
"Pocket" Daily Food for Thought, for free
If you are willing to offer your email address, "Pocket" will send you an email each day with links to remarkable articles.
https://getpocket.com
A sample of one of the articles:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-dystopian-lake-filled-by-the-world-s-tech-lust
Technological Solutions to World Problems?
Just Have A Think is a fast-paced, challenging set of free YouTube videos. "This channel seeks to understand the issues that face our civilization in the 21st Century and focuses on the potential solutions that will save as many lives as possible and hopefully bring about a greater level of equality in the world." Created by Dave Borlace, who describes himself: "Born 1969. BSc Hons. degree in Technology from the Open University in the UK. Working full time as a Project Manager in London as well as spending 20 to 30 hours a week researching and producing these videos."
https://www.youtube.com/c/JustHaveaThink/about
Will green hydrogen yield a clean way to store, transport and use energy produced by renewable energy sources? The Green Hydrogen Coalition and Janice Lin are thinking big. See their free webinars, white papers and news.
Miscellaneous Sources of Learning
NBC News Learn. NBC News offers multiple series of short videos on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to: chemistry, the brain, nano-technology, and the constitution. May be useful to curious individuals of various ages, including adults. https://www.youtube.com/c/Nbclearn/playlists
The Poem Hunter. The Poem Hunter website provides biographical sketches for famous poets, as well as many of their poems, in print and read aloud. https://www.poemhunter.com/louise-gluck/
Educational Opportunities Targeting Youth - International
Opportunities Circle
The Opportunities Circle website offers a central source of information about scholarships, internships, conferences, and online educational opportunities around the world.https://www.opportunitiescircle.com/
Formal Education - International
United Nations Master Degrees
The United Nations offers online Masters degrees in policy, conflict resolution, security, and peace studies. Here is one of several. https://unitar.org/courses-learning-events/individual-learners/master-degree-related-qualifications/master-conflict-peace-and-security-and-related-qualificationsFormal Education - United States
There is such a wide range of online educational opportunities out there, that one of the biggest challenges is finding the option best suited to your goals. Class Central, funded by the online educational establishments, offers an excellent place to start. Its resources are frequently referenced below through hyperlink. University websites also offer information, either directly or through an affiliate.
Some online education is fully adapted to the online interface, with online quizzes, supporting documents, and assignments. Other free online courses are simply videos of lectures delivered on campus. Nevertheless, free instant access to recorded lectures by professors at the world’s most prestigious colleges and universities is definitely a treat that some of us will appreciate.
People interested in promoting their careers may prefer to enroll actively in a certificate or a degree program for credit. In such cases, the participant will need to go through an application process and consider the cost of the program, as they would for an on-campus degree program.
Online Certificate Programs
For the mid-career professional, or a young person ready to move forward quickly, a certificate program may make more sense than a degree. Here is some information for online certificate programs: https://www.onlinecertificateprograms.org/business-mba/renewable-energy/Online Masters Degrees
Completing an online master's degree is a serious undertaking, whether in-person or online, but could offer a silver lining to under-emloyment during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Class Central article on Online Masters Degrees lists various programs and discusses how to proceed if you decide to apply.https://www.classcentral.com/report/mooc-based-masters-degree/
Free Online Courses
Many of the world’s best universities and colleges now offer free online courses. According to Wikipedia, 4/13/20,"A massive open online course (MOOC /muːk/) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive courses with user forums or social media discussions to support community interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs), as well as immediate feedback to quick quizzes and assignments. MOOCs are a recent and widely researched development in distance education, first introduced in 2008 and emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012.”
See the Class Central website for information about the options available and guidance on how best to take advantage of them: https://www.classcentral.com/
Free Online Courses from Ivy League colleges are listed on the FreeCodeCamp.org website (1/18/20): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/here-are-380-ivy-league-courses-you-can-take-online-right-now-for-free-9b3ffcbd7b8c/?utm_source=morning_brew
The courses listed below are a tiny subset of all that is available. They are listed here only to offer the reader quick insight into the types of options that are out there, and an ability to jump right in.
Yale University
On the web page for Yale’s free online courses, the user can sort by topic and platform: https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/online-coursesUnder each course, you will find a series of videos, one for each lecture. Watching these videos is like sitting in a classroom. The courses were not designed for online education, so do not include online assignments or reading material, and you don’t get academic credit. However, this set of courses does provide access to excellent lectures by experts on topics that may interest you. Here is a small sample of what is offered:
Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600, taught by history professor and author, Frank Snowden
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3AE7B3B6917DE8E6
Environmental Politics and Law, taught by Professor John Wargo, chair of the department https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL84DCD72C5B5DC403
Global Problems of Population Growth, taught by Professor Robert Wyman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzdqyXtPbbE&list=PLE60A08636F41C128
Examples of other courses offered free online by Yale University:
· Frontiers of Biomedical Engineering, Mark Salzman
· Astronomy: Frontiers and Controversies, Charles Bailyn
· Moral Foundations of Politics, Ian Shapiro
