What is Udemy?

“Open Online MOOCs”

Udemy Open Online Courses URL:  https://www.udemy.com/courses/.

MIT Open Courseware URL:  http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm.

Udemy offers free or inexpensive Ivy League education online and Udemy connects people who want to teach with people who want to learn. Most courses on Udemy are open online courses—dubbed (MOOCs) or massive open online courses that focus on work/professional skills such as Excel, Photoshop, Mobile Apps, User Experience, Web Design, Game Development, Start-Up/Entrepreneurship, Writing, Film making, Video Editing, Presentations, etc.  This site invites instructors from all lifestyles (Webutation, n.d.).

The reason I chose Udemy is that it offers anyone, anywhere, and anytime connections to learn from world experts.  Courses are taught on demand, which means they are taken at the user’s own pace.  Courses include discussion boards to interact with instructors and fellow students and most courses are free! Moreover, the paid courses are purported to cost far less than what you’d pay at a local college or university (Udemy, n.d.).  I would offer my adult learners hyperlinks to good and free writing courses on this site to familiarize them to the site where they learn writing skills development or any other subject of their choosing.

The next open online course that I chose this week that I would introduce to my adult learners to is MIT Open Courseware from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The idea is simple: to publish all of our course materials online and make them widely available to everyone” is the mantra of MIT’s OCW. Open Courseware or (OCW) makes the materials used in the teaching of almost all of MIT’s subjects available on line and free of charge” (MIT, n.d.).

MIT touts, “OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.” MIT is an Ivy League university that is respected around the world. This site is an excellent resource for adult educators because through OCW improves courses and curricula, making schools more effective according to the site’s literature. Moreover, it claims that students find additional resources to help them succeed; and independent learners enrich their lives and use the content to tackle some of our world’s most difficult challenges, including sustainable development, climate change, and cancer eradication” (MIT, n.d.). Learners can order any course that interest them for whatever their reason. Students have an opportunity to test drive eLearning from world experts from many academic disciplines. I, personally, would use this MOOC to brush up on my math skills. This site also offers students of limited English speaking abilities opportunities to learn English and it helps native English speakers knowledge for understanding the challenges such students face living in the USA.


Students do not need to register or enroll in course offered nor do they receive grades or credits. Moreover, MIT does not provide interaction or direct contact with MIT instructors, staff, or students. Teachers are encouraged to use, reuse, and mix (repurpose) content as long as they follow MIT’s terms of use. Furthermore, MIT hope users will “share” their content with friends, family and colleagues (MIT, n.d.). Teachers and learners are provided information on how “begin their educational journey” via “finding a course by topic or department; perusing courses on the site’s Cross-Disciplinary Topic Lists such as: energy, entrepreneurship, environment, introductory programming, life sciences, and transportation. Each OCW course offers some type of instruction that may include a syllabus, lecture notes, reading list, or calendar, and a learning activity such as assignments, quizzes, or exams.


References


MIT. (n.d.). MIT OCW. Retrieved from http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm.


Udemy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.udemy.com/courses/.


Udemy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.udemy.com/seeing-the-big-picture/?couponCode=UDEMY25.


Webutation. (n.d.). Open Website Reputation. Retrieved from http://www.webutations.org/go/review/udemy.com.