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A consortium of universities is offering free online courses on a wide range of topics. Princeton, Univ. of Michigan, Stanford, and Univ. of Pennsylvania offer online courses on mathematics and statistics, computer science, artificial intelligence, logic, music, art, sociology, medicine, and history. You can find them at

I started taking the course in machine learning. I looked at the discussion forum, and found that people from every continent around the world are enrolled. The lectures, course materials, and assignments are well done. It's worth taking a look.

I saw that posted on Google+. I love the new trend for online ad-hoc free education. Coursera.org, Khan Academy, Osher (not online).

Here's a great list of resources, mostly free and online:

I take classes at a local Osher - very good they are, too. (Currently taking one on astronomy, and another one on jazz and the American popular song.) We have a large and active OLLI program here.

Susanna wrote: "I take classes at a local Osher - very good they are, too. (Currently taking one on astronomy, and another one on jazz and the American popular song.) We have a large and active OLLI program here."

I am retiring this year and thanks to your post just looked up Osher. I did not realize that I have an active program near by. Thanks

That's a great list, Betsy. Thanks for sharing!

Excellent stuff. Thanks David and Betsy!

This seems to be an important trend. Here's an NPR article about it:

Thanks, David. I may take the Statistics 1 course in September from Coursera. I could use a refresher.

And thanks, Betsy for the NPR link...interesting.

I finished the course in Machine Learning from , a consortium of universities offering free online courses. The Machine Learning course was EXCELLENT. It was much more than simply watching video lectures. Many thousands of students from around the world submitted programming exercises that were graded automatically. I wrote a variety of programs that (for example):
1) recognized handwritten numbers
2) sorted spam from non-spam e-mail
3) performed image compression
4) recommended movies to watch
The next 10-week session of the course begins on August 20. If you are interested in programming in Matlab (or its freeware version, Octave), it is a great experience--I learned a lot!

After I took the course, the program expanded to include a total of 16 international universities, and lots more courses. At present there are 111 free courses being offered, some by world-famous professors. The courses cover an amazing variety of subjects, in these categories:
BIOLOGY & LIFE SCIENCES
COMPUTER SCIENCE: PROGRAMMING & SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
ECONOMICS & FINANCE
HEALTH AND SOCIETY & MEDICAL ETHICS
MATHEMATICS
STATISTICS, DATA ANALYSIS, AND SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING
BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT
COMPUTER SCIENCE: SYSTEMS, SECURITY, NETWORKING
EDUCATION
HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
MEDICINE
COMPUTER SCIENCE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ROBOTICS, VISION
COMPUTER SCIENCE: THEORY
ELECTRICAL AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING
INFORMATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND DESIGN
PHYSICAL & EARTH SCIENCES

I've signed up for another course that begins in September. Highly recommended!

David wrote: "A consortium of universities is offering free online courses on a wide range of topics. Princeton, Univ. of Michigan, Stanford, and Univ. of Pennsylvania offer online courses on mathematics and sta..."

Thanks, David. This is awesome!

Just a question, are the qualifications gained recognised? You see, my partner got a qualification in IT, and it isn't recognised as one that employers will accept, so are these qualifications recognised by employers? or are they just for the fun of it?

Hazel wrote: "Just a question, are the qualifications gained recognised? You see, my partner got a qualification in IT, and it isn't recognised as one that employers will accept, so are these qualifications reco..."

Hazel, after successful completion of a course, you do not get college credit. Instead, you get a "Statement of Accomplishment". My guess is that some employers will recognize it, while others will not. If recognition is important to you, then you might ask your employer ahead of time, whether they will recognize the qualification.