Freshen Your Skills with Free Courses Online

Free Courses for the Professional

Technology changes are frequent, but it's important to stay abreast of recent upgrades and knowing what is considered outmoded or obsolete for your line of work. Thankfully, many computer and software companies offer free tutorials on the World Wide Web to learn about how to use their products.

Apple Incorporated offers free online tutorials on a full suite of their Mac computer products. The tutorials range in levels from novice to expert and are videos posted on their official Web site.

The Microsoft Corporation provides free training courses for all levels of computer users and covers topics such as Using Bluetooth to Connect and Print, Protect Your PC from Spam, Spyware, and Viruses, and Microsoft Word 2007: Introduction. Some of the tutorials are videos whereas others are self-paced classes that require enrollment. Visit the Microsoft Web site to learn more.

Free Courses for (Future) Credit

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers a number of free online courses from their Independent Study Program (ISP). The courses offered cover the areas of homeland security and emergency management. A course is broken down into separate units and your class materials are available to you on the Web for download or on an official site. After completing all units, you are required to take final exam to be awarded college credit. According to their Web site, your examination results are sent to you in one to 2 business days.

Free Courses for the Sake of Learning

A number of training providers, colleges, and universities offer courses online free of charge. The OpenCourseWare (OCW) Consortium consists of over 200 institutions and organizations that provide free access to lectures, videos, and course materials to anyone on the World Wide Web. Some of the participating universities are:

• Arizona State University
• Kaplan University
• University of California, Irvine
• University of Massachusetts
• Western Governors University

Please note that the courses listed on eLearners.com are not free of charge.

A number of schools and training providers are not members of the OCW Consortium but offer valuable courses online for free.

Business Entrepreneurship & Economics

1. Carnegie Mellon, Open Learning Initiative
2. Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Small Business Development Center
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management
4. Tufts University, The Fletcher School
5. U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
6. UC Berkeley, Courses in Economics, Statistics
7. University of Utah, Department of Economics
8. Utah State University, Department of Economics
9. Yale University, Department of Economics

Foreign Languages

1. Babel, Course in Arabic Language
2. BBC Online, Chinese, English, French, Gaelic, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Welsh
3. University of Iceland, Icelandic Language
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Foreign Languages and Literatures

Liberal Arts & Humanities

1. Carnegie Mellon, Open Learning Initiative
2. William Rainey Harper College, World Regional Geography
3. Yale University, Classics, English History, Philosophy

Sciences & Mathematics

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics
2. Tufts University, School of Arts & Sciences
3. University of Washington, Information Technology
4. Utah State University, Mathematics, Statistics, and Engineering

Culture, Religion, & Enrichment

1. Brigham Young University, Family History/Genealogy
2. Jewish Interactive Studies (JIS)
3. Notre Dame University, Ethnic and Cultural Studies

Medicine, First-Aid Training, & Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Tutorials

1. FirstAidWeb Inc.
2. Harvard University-MIT, Division of Health Sciences and Technology
3. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4. Tufts School of Medicine
5. UC Berkeley, Courses in Public Health
6. University of South Carolina, School of Medicine
7. University of Washington, School of Medicine
8. Yale University, Department of Biomedical Engineering