Coursera: Back to University

Some days I truly miss university and taking classes. I certainly don’t miss the exams, or the stress, but I do miss the library, taking notes and being enveloped in a learning environment. I’ve been searching for a good online course for a while now, but to no avail. They were either way too expensive, or required more commitment than I could give alongside a full-time job. But just the other day Geek and Sundry posted a Tweet about Coursra, a recently launched service offering a number of free online courses from some top universities. 

I was thrilled! I had finally found what I was looking for! The course list is impressive, as is the list of universities taking part. The course setup varies from class to class, but each week video lectures are released, required reading materials are distributed and assignments are set. You know, like a real course! 

I was so excited in fact that I have already signed up for:

• Fantasy and Science Fiction Literacture (which starts today!)
• Greek and Roman Mythology (September)
• An Introduction to Astronomy (November)

As you get older I feel like the opportunities to go out and learn something random become less and less frequent, but this provides a great platform for anyone to learn something a bit different with just an Internet connection. 

I’m thoroughly looking forward to my first “class” and weirdly enough, my first assignment…