Find FREE and OPEN Online Courses

FREE online materials of entire courses (syllabus, presentations, assignments, and assessments) published by select universities are available for you. Simply click on a major topic heading and browse through the MERLOT collection of Free Online Courses.

Explore Open Courseware by Occupation

Using the links below you can browse for Open CourseWare in SkillsCommons by various Occupations identified by the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes. The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System is a United States government system of classifying occupations. It is used by U.S. federal government agencies collecting occupational data, enabling comparison of occupations across data sets. For more information visit the U. S. Dept. of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Standard Occupational Classifciation (SOC) system .

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

A MOOC is a type of FREE online course aimed at large-scale participation and open access via the web. MOOCs are a recent development in the area of distance education, and a progression of the kind of open education ideals suggested by open educational resources.

• Coursera  — Classes offered on Coursera are designed to help you master the material. When you take Coursera classes, you will watch lectures taught by world-class professors, learn at your own pace, test your knowledge, and reinforce concepts through interactive exercises. When you join one of Cousera's classes, you'll also join a global community of thousands of students learning alongside you. Coursera's courses are designed based on sound pedagogical foundations , to help you master new concepts quickly and effectively.
• edX  — Courses offered by edX are designed to be interesting, fun and rigorous. edX states that their courses "are the best courses, from the best professors and the best schools, spanning dozens of subjects. Some edX courses now offer ID verified Certificates of Achievement. A new way to demonstrate your achievement and showcase your knowledge" EdX offers MOOCs and interactive online classes in subjects including law, history, science, engineering, business, social sciences, computer science, public health, and artificial intelligence (AI).
• Udacity  — Courses offered by Udacity are highly interactive with activities, quizzes, and exercises interspersed between short videos and talks by instructors and industry experts. You can watch the videos and try the quizzes as many times as you like without any penalties. The quizzes are a tool to help you learn. Usually after a lesson, there will be a problem set with exercises for you to check if you have learned the material in that lesson. Problem set completion may be included in the requirements for a certificate for the course. However, just like with the quizzes, you can try them as many times as you like without penalty.

Here are few quick links to OCW provided by other higher education institutions