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OPENLEARN http://www.open.edu/openlearn/ OpenLearn aims to break the barriers and ONLINE obstacles that prevent many from receiving a proper education by reaching out to millions RESOURCES of learners around the world. It provides free educational resources and invites all to FOR sample courses that registered students can take for free! What can you do on OpenLearn? You can use this website to: FREE • browse the subject categories, discover articles, watch videos and interact with features and games created by academic COURSES experts and guest contributors • explore new topics to build your personal knowledge or look for reference material for a course you are already studying Last year, we featured the edX • join debates - hit the Comments area to website where one can access make your voice heard, rate the website free online classes offered by and share with your friends reputable universities, colleges, • find out What’s On TV and radio - great and organizations. A number Open University programmes on the BBC of people made use of it and • take one of the free courses • earn a digital badge or statement of we received a good feedback participation as evidence of your learning1 about that article. One of our readers even sent us an e-mail of appreciation. The reason why ETC Connect exists is to provide you with useful information! This year, we would like to provide OPEN2STUDY you with a list of free e-learning http://www.open2study.com sites to choose from. Open2Study provides free, specialised short These websites offer free courses courses, entirely online, across the world, that you may be interested in in a range of subject areas. Here, the best taking. ETC recommends that education providers across Australia and from around the world work with a dedicated team you always read their terms and of learning designers and television producers conditions before starting. For to create an online learning experience that is your convenience and guidance second-to-none. we would like to provide you with some information found on Open2Study says that “The courses their websites at Open2Study are free – and we mean completely free! There are no fees or administrative charges, no textbooks or materials to buy and absolutely no hidden costs. Even the certificates are freely awarded once you successfully complete the course! Open2Study lets you dip your toe in the water to decide if online learning suits you - you can Marilou B. Paderes [email protected] try one course or try them all, and it takes just 2685-2939 four weeks for you to learn something new. Once you’re done, you’ll have picked up new knowledge and skills ETC Connect : Volume 12 Issue 1 : February 2018 47 48 ETC Connect : Volume 12 Issue 1 : February 2018 that you can start applying straight away. All courses are available to everyone. Whether you’re curious about online study, looking to boost your professional skills, returning to study or just want to learn something new for fun. This is a great site where you can get high-quality education, free of charge. When you successfully complete your course you’ll get a FREE Certificate of Achievement, which you can use to demonstrate your OPENCULTURE interest in learning about a certain area.2 http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses Open Culture offers 1200 free online courses from the world’s leading universities: Stanford, Yale, MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Oxford and many more. You can download the audio & video courses from iTunes, YouTube, or university web sites straight on to your computer or mp3 player. Over 30,000 hours of free audio & FUTURELEARN video lectures are available on this site. http://www.futurelearn.com Open Culture brings together high-quality FutureLearn provides you with the liberty to cultural & educational media for the learning upgrade or learn for free. You can do this at community worldwide. Web 2.0 has immense the very start or at any point during or after amounts of free educational audios and the course. videos. But the problem is, these learning resources are scattered all over the web, and FutureLearn courses are divided into weekly are not easily found. Open Culture’s whole modules that contain various activities to be mission is to centralize this content, curate completed within the week allotted for each it, and give you access to this high quality module. Every module is built with a sequence content whenever and wherever you want it. of straightforward steps that makes learning easy. Each week is given a descriptive name, Some of the major resource collections so you always know what is to be expected. include: You can even navigate between them, to • 1200 Free Online Courses from Top see what is coming up, or catch up from the Universities beginning if you started late.3 • 1,150 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, etc. • 900 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free • 800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices • MOOCs from Great Universities (Many With Certificates) • Learn 46 Languages Online for Free: Spanish, Chinese, English & More • 200 Free Kids Educational Resources: Video Lessons, Apps, Books, Websites & More4 ETC Connect : Volume 12 Issue 1 : February 2018 49 50 ETC Connect : Volume 12 Issue 1 : February 2018 LEARN ENGLISH ONLINE ALISON http://www.learn-english-online.us/ https://alison.com This website has been created with an eye to make you learn English in a fast and easy Alison states that “We believe that through way. You will be able to learn English for free education, everyone has the power to change online, thanks to this program. One of the their lives, and ultimately the world, for the biggest challenges encountered in learning better. English is memorization of words. The most significant issue with memorizing words in Innovation, technology and creative English are matching of the words with their collaboration with knowledge experts meanings and envisioning the meaning of worldwide are the foundations of Alison’s words that are learned. The easiest way to commitment to delivering universal access to learn English language is by utilizing your education for free. brain in a complete manner. Our services and products deliver freedom In other words, the learning process must be to learn and the tools to succeed - enabling carried out through the employment of the employees, learners, publishers, and brain’s visual power. Learning English online employees to empower themselves and is effective and very easy. Learners will be others.” able to speak English fluently with the free spoken English lessons made up of 1000 Alison was founded in Galway in 2007 and words! The training content and packages are has grown organically to become a major prepared by English language experts from force in online education.Today, with more all over the world.6 than 10 million learners in 195 countries, Alison is changing how the world learns. This list is by no means complete. There are Alison is committed to equality and access to still a lot more online resources than those education irrespective of gender, geography, mentioned in this article to choose from. economic status or any other barriers that Someone once said, “The future lies in your can so often stunt potential. So on offer are hand,” and this is literally true. Powerful a range of free courses that meet the many technologies are now within your grasp and diverse needs of learners. The UN declared are easily accessible from anywhere in the that everyone is entitled to a free education. world. Then, the only thing you need to do That statement is the inspiration behind Alison. to enhance your learning is to connect to the Net. Alison was started and is run by Mike Feerick. Mike is first and foremost a businessman, but I hope this article was able to entice and one with a difference. He happens to believe excite you to learn new things, explore new that the better you do financially, the more possibilities and enhance your knowledge. good you can do. Learning through Alison is free of charge, but it’s still a business – albeit with a social focus. It is a social enterprise that makes money References: through advertising, merchandise and the 1 Welcome to OpenLearn: Free learning from The Open University (November 5, 2014). Retrieved June 19, 2017, from sale of Certificates and Diplomas, should a http://www.open.edu/openlearn/about-openlearn/welcome-openlearn-free-learning-the-open-university graduate choose to buy one.5 2 What is Open2Study?(n.d.) Retrieved June 19, 2017, from https://www.open2study.com/help#1 3 Using Future Learn (n.d.) Retrieved June 20, 2017, from https://www.futurelearn.com/using-futurelearn 4 Open Culture-About Us (n.d.) Retrieved June 20, 2017, from http://www.openculture.com/faq 5 Our Story (n.d.) Retrieved June 20, 2017, from https://alison.com/about/our-story 6 Learn English Online (n.d.) Retrieved June 20, 2017, from http://www.learn-english-online.us/ ETC Connect : Volume 12 Issue 1 : February 2018 51 52 ETC Connect : Volume 12 Issue 1 : February 2018.