Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT is among the best universities, having been ranked the #7 top National Universities in 2014 and the #5 best value school in the same year by the U.S. News & World Report.
With more than 2,100 free courses, MIT has the largest array of OpenCourseWare options, covering nearly all imaginable topics. It’s open courses have been translated into many different languages to make them truly accessible to all.
These open courses are available through both audio and video format.
Introduction to psychology, algebra, principles of microeconomics and physics, are among some of the most popular open courses as of March 2014.
University of California, Berkeley
UC Berkeley provides a great number open lecturers and courses. With features such as on-demand replay, eager students can access both archived and current courses. Courses are free, and cover such diverse topics as archaeology and psychology, as well as bioengineering.
The Open Courseware at UC Berkeley, also includes videos and audios covering major on-campus events such as environmental summits and guest lectures, that are available free of charge.
Recently, in 2014, the U.S News and World Report ranked UC Berkeley #20 in it’s list of best national universities and #1 in it’s list of public schools in the United States.
The Open University.
The Open University has the largest enrollment of all the universities in the UK.
This prestigious university is behind the Open Learn website that hosts a huge catalog of over 700 courses that are available for free.
These courses cover many different subjects such as history, art, business, law, education, computer science, society, foreign languages, technology, and math.
Courses are grouped based on their difficulty and may be categorized as introductory, intermediate or advanced. This makes it easy for students to find course material that suits them.
The Open University has been ranked, by Times Higher Education for 2012-2013, as being among the top 100 universities under 50 years old.
Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Sometimes referred to as Tokyo Tech, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, offers an OpenCourseWare program that provides over 200 open courses and other course materials like, a syllabus, a course outline, and lecture notes, in addition to other audio and video material.
The open courses are for students looking to discover more about math, computer science, and engineering topics.
Times Higher Education ranked Tokyo Tech #128 worldwide for the year 2012-2013.
Middle East Technical University.
With a reputation ranking of 51-60, the Middle East Technical University was ranked as being among the top 100 most powerful universities by Times Higher Education in 2013.
It’s Open Courseware program includes more than 100 free open courses. A large number of these courses explore topics in the fields of physics and informatics. Additionally, several other OpenCourseWare options are available from this university and they discuss such subjects as math, aerospace engineering, psychology, modern languages, and game technologies.
Delft University of Technology.
Delft University of Technology is an engineering university located in the Netherlands that provides nearly 130 open courses through its remarkable OpenCourseWare program.
With a focus on the sciences, this school features open courses that cover infrastructures, energy, the environment and health.
All these courses are made available from the bachelor’s and master’s programs at the university. Some of the specific open programs include bio mechatronics, solid state physics courses, aerospace engineering, electronic instrumentation, and electrical power drives.
Delft was ranked #77,by the Times Higher Education, in it’s list of top universities worldwide in the year 2012-2013.
Stanford University.
Stanford University offers over 100 free courses through it’s innovative Open Courseware programs that avail courses in many different formats. The In Session format allows learners to participate in live courses using the Internet. Such In Session courses are available in many different subjects such as machine learning, game theory, writing, quantum mechanics, and genetics, among many such others. The self-study format allows students to take self-paced courses anytime, from anywhere, via iTunes U. Other continuing education courses, as well as the archived courses, are available as well free of charge.
The U.S. News & World Report ranked Stanford #5 among the top National Universities. The university also ranked among the top 5 in the list of best value schools from the same publication.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has made a great number of it’s best courses freely accessible to all via the internet.
Over 100 courses related to public health are available. General public health, infectious diseases, chronic diseases, maternal health, nutrition, global health, genetics, and health policy, are the main focus of a large number of these open courses.
This university was ranked the 12th top university in the Nation by the U.S. News & World Report in 2014. The same publication ranked the university #20 in it’s list of best value schools for the same year.
University of California, Irvine.
Coming in at 49th place among the best national universities, and #14 in the list of top public schools by the U.S. News & World Report in 2014, the Open Courseware program at the University of California in Irvine features over 100 courses and lectures.
These open courses discuss various subjects in fields such as engineering, business, humanities, health, and physical sciences.
As if that is not enough, there are free courses available to guide students as they prepare for the California Subject Examination for Teachers, together with addition courses in TEFL.
University of Michigan.
The University of Michigan is behind Open. Michigan, an Open Courseware initiative that provides over 85 educational materials free of charge.
This includes tutorials, courses, datasets and much more.
With the help of these materials, students can learn more about subjects like medicine, business, public policy, education, and music.
The U.S. News & World Report ranked the University of Michigan #28 in it’s list of top national universities. Moreover, the same publication ranked the university #4 on it’s list of top public schools.
Utah State University.
Utah State University offers free access, via the internet, to over 80 comprehensive courses through its OpenCourseWare program.
Its free courses cover topics in such fields as engineering, agriculture, education, anthropology, languages, history, theatre arts and physics.
Course materials like reading assignments, essay questions and exercises are also available and can be downloaded.
The U.S. News & World Report listed this university among the top 200 national universities in 2014. It was also ranked #51 in the list of best schools for veterans by the same publication.
University of Iowa.
This University of Iowa runs the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. This is a renown residency program for learners of creative writing who are looking to increase their knowledge in writing.
Through this virtual writing program, students can get some experience in creative writing.
This Virtual Writing University offers nearly 70 podcasts that are freely accessible for all students interested in poetry, reading and writing methods, grammar, short stories, and emerging technologies related to the field, and many more.
These podcasts can be accessed through a single download.
In 2014, the university was listed as #73 and #29 in the list of best national universities and that of top public universities respectively, by the U.S. News & World Report.
Tufts University.
Tufts University has made many courses from its various schools, easily accessible online for free. This includes courses from the School of Medicine, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, School of Dental Medicine, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, School of Arts and Science, Fletcher School and others. In total, nearly 55 courses are openly available at Tufts.
Examples of the actual courses available include the following: human pathology, genetics, biostatistics, intellectual development and histology.
Tufts is the 32nd best value school and is ranked #28 in the list of best national universities as ranked by the U.S. News & World Report in 2014.
University of Massachusetts, Boston.
UMass Boston has a robust Open Courseware program that offers all sorts of free course materials and courses.
It offers almost 50 courses that explore many topics such as biology, math, history, health sciences and nursing, psychology, special education, and counseling.
The course material includes video lectures, together with other kinds of course material such as assignments, quizzes and lecture notes.
The College of Management at this university has been ranked among the top 295 Business Schools by The Princeton Review in 2014.
University of Notre Dame.
The University of Notre Dame has published almost 45 open courses from a variety of fields.
These free courses cover many topics that include: Africana and Middle East studies, history, sociology, philosophy, political science, gender studies and theology.
Course materials include video lectures, exams, assignments, and quizzes.
The university has been ranked the 18th best national university in 2014 according to the U.S. News & World Report.
Yale University.
Yale University provides a broad range of free online courses that anyone can access through its Open Yale Courses site.
Each course comes with video lectures and a lot more educational content.
The site has over 40 courses available that help all learners explore various topics in astronomy, English, physics, psychology, religious studies, philosophy and political science.
Yale University was ranked as the second best value school and the 3rd best national university in 2014 by the U.S. News & World Report.
University of Hong Kong.
The University of Hong Kong has made a large number of free course materials easily available to students. This includes over 25 lecturers and 5 courses from the university’s Department of Architecture.
These courses discuss topics in many areas as such as the following: built environment, building energy, green building practices, environmental sciences and energy efficiency.
Students can supplement these courses with a series of case studies and notes that offer additional information on the same topics.
The university was ranked #35 worldwide by Times Higher Education in 2012-2013.
Carnegie Mellon University.
Carnegie Mellon University, through its Open Learning Initiative, offers more than 20 open online courses.
These free courses explore various topics in fields such as engineering, biology, chemistry, biology, French statistics and economics. In addition to that, there are foundations, as well as two courses in STEM readiness alongside a healthcare management and media programming course.
The U.S. News & World Report named Carnegie Mellon the 23rd best national university in the U.S. and the 14th best up-and-coming school in the U.S. for the year 2014.
Duke University.
Launched in 2012, Duke’s Massive Open Online Courses initiative, is one of the newer Open Courseware programs.
Duke University has partnered with Coursera to offer nearly 20 courses.
Examples of available courses include bioelectricity, irrational behavior, astronomy, chemistry and medical neuroscience – just to mention a few.
Duke is the 7th best university in the national according to the 2014 rankings by the U.S. News & World Report. The same report also ranked Duke University the 12th best value school.
American University Washington College of Law.
The law school at American University offers nearly 20 podcasts that discuss several topics in law.
For example, students can listen to podcasts that cover topics such as human rights, student debt relief and government secrecy – just to name a few.
Podcasts include guest lectures, with others focusing on workshops and seminars from summits and student conferences. Each podcast includes large number of episodes.
American University was ranked #75 in the list of the best national universities by the U.S. News & World Report. Similarly, its law school was ranked #75 in the nation by the same publication for the year 2014.
University of Washington.
The University of Washington is home to Open UW, that offers more than 10 open courses. This Open Courseware program is supported by the educational outreach department at the university. The open courses available cover such topics as mythology, project management and public speaking. Topics in computer science are also discussed by some of the courses.
The University of Washington was ranked #52 in the 2014 list of best national universities, and #20 among the top public schools in the same year by the U.S. News & World Report.
New York University.
The pilot program by the New York University, Open Education, is currently offering nearly 10 free open courses.
These open courses cover calculus, sociology, behavioral science, public finance and , American literature.
Learners can as well chose a course on genomes and another covering ancient Israel. These courses may be accessed via YouTube and iTunes U.
NYU was ranked #32 in the 2014 list of best national universities by the U.S. News & World Report.
Tulane University.
Stephen A. Nelson, from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Tulane, is an associate professor who has made a few of his courses available to interested learners for free. The courses can be accessed through the Internet and they explore topics in physical geology, mineralogy and petrology. Moreover, there are extra courses on Hurricane Katrina, and natural disasters that are available as well, together with a course covering the Earth.
Students are provided with lecture notes and the course syllabus.
The U.S. News & World Report ranked Tulane as th 52nd best national university in 2014.[/mpc_icon_column]
Berklee College of Music.
The Hollywood reporter named Berklee College of Music the top Hollywood music school in 2013.
The college runs the Berklee Shares program which is a new program that offers several music production videos and free music lessons that are adapted from school’s educational programs and music courses.
These sample music lessons cover everything from songwriting, to guitar, to jazz and orchestration, in addition to music theory and music business.
Universidad Nacional De Colombia.
Universidad Nacional De Colombia offers over 200 free courses to learners who speak Spanish.
These courses cover subjects such as science, administration, nursing, agronomy, art, architecture, engineering, dentistry and medicine.
In 2011, this top-notch university was ranked as the best Colombian university according to a study jointly initiated by the Colombian Institute for the Promotion of Science and Technology and the Colombia Ministry of Education.
Cambridge University.
Cambridge University gives all eager learners the opportunity to access educational content via a free download. It features a broad range of both audio and video content that continues to grow on a monthly basis.
This educational material is brought together from public talks, podcasts, lecture series and public videos.
Columbia University.
Columbia University has a large galley of free photos and videos of content pulled from presidential lectures, university lectures, world leaders forum, Kraft program and other events at the university, dating back to the year 2004.
It includes a number of free lectures from distinguished scholars and global dignitaries that can be accessed online.
Cornell University.
Cornell University offers free course content and online lectures through its e-commons platform.
This platform is supported by the Cornell University Library, and organizes content by author, subject and title to make it easier for students to find.
Learners are allowed to submit their own research, documents, images, papers and datasets to the archive.
Emory University.
Emory University offers its own courses, lectures, speeches, music, news and much more through its iTunes U page.
It has also partnered with coursera to offer more free educational content and courses.
Courses cover topics such as Ancient Nubia, and much more.
Harvard University.
This prestigious university offers its lectures, performances and courses for free via their YouTube and iTunes U pages.
Northwestern University.
Northwestern University provides free online lectures, classes, news and concerts, in addition to its other programs.
This is made available through its YouTube channel. Its video courses cover the following topics: music and language skills, environmental engineering and others from the School of Law, the school of Engineering and Applied Sciences and more.
Oxford University.
Oxford University is one of the most prestigious universities in the world. It provides free access to its public lectures, courses, videos, audio podcasts, interviews and forums through it’s iTunes U page.
It is one of the largest contributors to iTunes U, with over 25 million downloads from over 185 different countries.
Its open courses cover general philosophy, building a business, and quantum mechanics.
Penn State University.
Penn State University hosts a growing selection of free online courses and lectures through its iTunes U page.
Pepperdine University.
Pepperdine University has a large selection of free online video lectures, performances as well as seminars.
Princeton University.
Princeton University offers several audio and video lectures, together with numerous seminars, covering different topics from the most distinguished scholars at Princeton.
Seton Hall University.
This university offers online lectures and other programs for free through its YouTube page.
These programs cover topics in leadership development, internships and career success, modern catholicism, diplomacy and much more.
UCLA.
There is a vast selection of lectures and other educational content from UCLA, available for free through various platforms such as BruinCast.
Courses cover everything from anthropology, chemistry, electrical engineering, english, geography, history, society and genetics.
The University of Chicago.
The university of Chicago has a large and growing archive of interviews, free online lectures, student films, performances and other course materials that are easily accessible through their iTunes U page.
The University of Southern California.
The University of Southern California has made many of its courses, panel discussions and lectures freely accessible through its YouTube page.
The educational content available there is derived from the schools different colleges such as the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, the Marshall School of Business and others.
University of Texas at Austin.
The University of Texas at Austin offers a lecture series online, for easy access, through its school of Undergraduate Studies.
Its lectures cover various topics such as lessons in leadership and others.
It also hosts the World Lecture Hall which is a comprehensive directory of the best online course content, available for free.
Vanderbilt University.
The iTunes U, and YouTube pages of the Vanderbilt University feature free educational content, lectures and news from thevarious colleges at the university such as the Peabody College of Education and Human Development.
Its topics cover various subjects such as research, digital learning, Latin American studies and much more.