Everything is expensive, but a new approach to education, is providing an opportunity to access high quality education at little or no cost. Technology is now providing us with educational opportunities that a very short time ago were unimaginable.
Imagine the possibility of doing a course on Healthcare Innovation with Harvard University staff, without having to relocate or leave your job, free (or very cheap) and certified. Well, that and much more, is the reality of today.
Edx.org is one way of accessing courses such as this. EdX offers interactive online classes and MOOCs from the world’s best universities. Online courses from MITx, HarvardX, BerkeleyX, UTx and many other universities. Topics include biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, finance, electronics, engineering, food and nutrition, law, math, medicine, music, philosophy, physics, science, statistics and more. EdX is a non-profit online initiative created by founding partners Harvard and MIT.
What is a “MOOC”
A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course. It is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs). MOOCs are a recent development in distance education which began to emerge in 2012.
A little bit of background from Wikipedia: “Galway based online education provider ALISON is often cited in industry literature as the first MOOC, pioneering the systematic aggregation of online interactive learning resources made available worldwide with a “freemium” model. Its stated objective is to enable people to gain basic education and workplace skills. Contrary to other MOOC providers with close links to American third level institutions such as MIT and Stanford University, the majority of ALISON’s learners are located in the developing world with the fastest growing number of users in India. It records 1.2 million unique visitors per month with 250,000 graduates of its 500+ courses as of January 2013. In February 2014, ALISON registered its 3 millionth user.
On-going formalised education is not for everyone but there are opportunities to build your education portfolio whether through little chunks or big bites. There are over 180 courses available on EdX. For example, you can study Musculoskeletal Anatomy, Introductory Physics — Part 1: Mechanics and Waves, Introduction to Biomedical Imaging or even, The Science of Happiness.
Education is changing. Universities offer an experience which is about broadening horizons, learning to construct the right questions, framing arguments, considering correct answers, opening one’s mind to new ideas. Arguably, education is about the process, not just the outcome, the journey, not just the destination. The communication of knowledge is just a part of that process but a fundamental part which is now made available to us all.
Many of us have a thirst for more education, many of our jobs require us to re-educate and constantly up-skill ourselves. We are frustrated about funding and time but we have an opportunity here to access knowledge and access teaching support for free and at times that may suit us. This does not replace a university educational experience but provides an opportunity to learn and to access education to a stated, and in some cases, certified level.
Example: Innovating in Healthcare
This course, Innovating in Healthcare, is available on Edx.org. The duration is 11 weeks with an estimated effort of 6 to 12 hours per week. It is free to access all of the course material, tests, and the online discussion forum. You decide what and how much you want to do.
For this course it is not possible to receive a Verified Certificate of Achievement. Verified Certificates of Achievement are advisable if you want to use your achievement on this course as part of your portfolio for a job application or promotion, this is an advisable option and would cost arround $150 (€110). Edx are working to make Verified Certificates of Achievement available for more courses.
Innovating in Health Care (IHC) enables participants to meet and interact with others who are also interested in improving health care. The course focuses on evaluating and crafting business models that attain alignment between an entrepreneurial health care venture and the six factors that critically shape new health care ventures – Financing, Structure, Public Policy, Consumers, Technology, and Accountability. Innovating in Health Care discusses the impact of these factors on business models for three different kinds of innovations: consumer-focused, technology-driven, and integrations which create scale.
Final Word
Technology constantly challenges but constantly throws up new opportunities. Edx.org has over 180 courses, ALISON offers over 800 courses.
While this article is weighted towards learning in the healthcare field, you study just about anything (from Irish to Plumbing to statistics) with ALISON, see http://alison.com/learn/.
Finally, we have options for affordable learning.
(by Meabh Smith, originally published in the BEAI Spectrum, Summer, 2014)
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