If dual enrollment isn’t in your high schooler’s future but you’d still like your teen to take college classes, free college online could be the ticket. At least a dozen major universities now offer “open” courses to the public — free. These are actual college lectures from major colleges and universities that are recorded and made available online, with no obligation whatsoever, to anyone with an interest and a high-speed Internet connection.
Imagine being able to have your high schooler sit in on a History of Art class at Yale, a Psychology course at UCLA or a Chemical Engineering class at MIT. Using open courseware, this is now a reality.
Perhaps you’re wondering how these courses might be used for homeschooling? Offering advanced high school credit is one way. For instance, just like you’d “weight” an AP or honors course more than a traditional high school course, you can weight the college course when applying it to the GPA. (This is called a “weighted GPA”.)
A second way is to use the courses to supplement other learning going on at home. For example, a student studying a topic at home could use as many of the college lectures as would be needed to reinforce learning, or satisfy whatever remaining hours you’ve established to award credit.
Gauging interest is a third option. One never knows when a spark of interest may ignite in a student! Watching online college lectures can help teens learn more about different areas and think about if these courses/careers might have a place in their future.
Lastly, there is great intrinsic value here. Like anything else, students of all ages can watch just because they want to. Whether one completes an entire course or just a sampling of lectures offered by a variety of different lecturers, the opportunities for learning are endless — and don’t forget, free.
Begin with these links and find others on your own:
To your success,
Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau is a college professor who traded in her tenure to become a homeschool mom 20+ years ago. A homeschool pioneer and the founder of many groups and organizations, she works to advance home education, and is an outspoken supporter of education reform coast to coast. Her book, Suddenly Homeschooling: A Quick Start Guide to Legally Homeschool in Two Weeks, is industry-acclaimed for illustrating how homeschooling can rescue children and families from the public school system, and how anyone can begin homeschooling within a limited time-frame, with no teaching background whatsoever. A writer, a homeschool leader, and a women’s life coach, Marie-Claire mentors in a variety of areas that impact health, education and lifestyle. A conference speaker, she has appeared at FPEA, H.E.R.I., Home Education Council of America, The Luminous Mind, Vintage Homeschool Moms, iHomeschool Network, and many other events. Her articles have appeared in and on Holistic Parenting, CONNECT,Homefires, Homemaking Cottage, Kiwi, Circle of Moms, and hundreds of sites and blogs nationwide. Marie-Claire can be reached at contactmarieclaire@gmail.com.
Thank you so much for this. This will really help me expand my self-teaching abilities.
Excellent, Vanessa! Feel free to check back and let us know how it works out 🙂 Best wishes!
Im in seventh grade and want to take college classe like algebra and nursing can i do that here? And im not home schooled and will do this after my regular school when i get home
i want to have online learning so i can get more high school education experiance because i don’t want to go to college.
Hey, uhmmmm. I’m not homeschooled. And i’m kinda sorta still in 8th grade. However, i really want to take some beginning law OR Psychology courses if that’s possible. I just haven’t really been able to find anything because of my age. I just wanted to know if that’s a problem here.
Thanks(:
Haha, just kidding. Sorry ! I misunderstood what the website was ! Pardon Me !
is there anyway we could get college credits, lfrom taking these open courses
Absolutely! It may depend on your location, the specific course and the institution, of course, but there are many ways to earn actual credit while in high school. Dual enrollment in high school, CLEP in college, and applying for un-college type experiences, just to name a few. If this is something you’d like to pursue, feel free to email us privately, and we’ll point you in the right direction 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Hi I am in the seventh grade but Know how to program in C++, Batch and am learning Java. I also do 3d motion graphics, and video edit I was wondering if you could tell me how to get college credit if I took some of these classes
i want to learn more about health
Im in seventh grade and want to take college classe like algebra and nursing can i do that here? And im not home schooled and will do this after my regular school when i get home
Hey I’m in high school in the 11th grade and want to take classes for a CNA
i’m in seventh grade and i was wondering if there were any writing courses or something here that i could take. thanks 😀
Hi Missy! There aren’t any writing courses here on this site, but you can find a list of some courses to try in this post, hope it helps! Good luck 🙂 http://marieclairemoreau.com/2012/11/writing-instruction/
I’m in 7th grade. I was wondering if there were any criminal justice courses that I could take…
I’m in 8th grade. We’re in the same situation. I also want to enroll free online courses about science, health, self- development,… but I don’t really know how … .Can anyone help me ?
Great to hear you’d like to take online classes! I am always available if a parent or guardian would like to contact me for advice. Good luck!
I want to improve my English skill. What should I do?
I want to do a cousre on archecture
desings and building.Can you give me some adivce.
Hi,
Good day ,I want to do a course on archtecture degins and buildings.I need some advice andhelp on how to get started on this course.