Today I decided to write about one of my passions: free online education. It all started for me when in spring 2012 I noticed a facebook post by one of my friends with a link to Coursera. For me, it was love from the first sight. I was amazed to find out that top universities of the world provide online courses open to anyone for free and immediately subscribed to 3 courses.
1,5 years have passed since my first encounter with Coursera. I've finished 5 courses and watched video lectures from at least 4 more. So, did it pay off for the time spent? I believe yes. After giving it a big deal of thought, these are my reasons why online education creates value:
1) It gives a chance for better life for those who don't have possibilities to go to university. There so many people in our world who live in poverty but don't have a chance to get a good education and a better job. Very often the reason is money, but it can also be the location or time: often you need to quit your job and move to another location to obtain a better education. Few can do it. Just imagine a family with children who don't have any savings and very low income! Now you can take online courses from the top universities of the world for free when and where it is most suitable for you. (By the way, Stanford changes 43 950$ for one year of master's studies in engineering).
2) It allows you to discover your real passion. We are usually very young when we need to choose a profession and select a university program to enroll into. I was 17. At this age, it is very hard to know what you want to do in life but once you are on the way, it is almost impossible to change your career path. Among several reasons for that, you don't get to try other professions once you started studying one subject or started working. Online education gives an opportunity to try something completely new. For example, I took a course in machine learning, which was far more advanced and technical than the offerings of my business school. I realized this is exactly what I want to do in work.
3) It improves your chances to find a job. Obviously, employers don't value online courses as much as a real degree, but nevertheless, taking online courses can differentiate you from other candidates. The more knowledge is of course the better, but this is not the only thing I mean here. Taking online courses shows your drive. It shows you are so interested in your field that university courses were not enough and you decided to spend your free time to improve your skills even further. From my experience of searching for a job in a foreign country without knowing the local language, it is very important to find how to differentiate yourself and online courses can give you such an advantage. By the way, now it is possible to include your Coursera accomplishments to your Linkedin profile!
So, these are my thought about online education. Do you agree? Do you know any other way how free online education benefits the society?
I encourage you to check out what Coursera and other platforms have to offer (scroll over the picture below) and maybe you will find something you've always been curious about but never had a chance to try.
