Universities With the Best Free Online Courses

No tuition money? No problem! There are many top universities that offer
free courses online. This list ranks some of the best free university
courses for people who want to enhance personal knowledge or advance in
their current field.

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mit.edu)

a.. Free MIT Courses Online

If you are looking for a wide range of free courses online, MIT is your best
option. There are more than 1,800 free courses offered through the school's
OpenCourseWare project. Courses are in audio, video and text format and can
be translated into a number of different languages. People from all over the
world use OpenCourseWare and 96 percent of visitors say they would recommend
the site to someone else.

2. Open University (open.ac.uk)

a.. Free Open University Courses Online

The Open University is the UK's largest academic institution. The school's
OpenLearn website gives everyone free access to undergraduate and graduate
level course materials from The Open University. Courses cover a broad range
of topics, such as arts and history, business, education, IT and computing,
mathematics and statistics, science, health and technology.

3. Carnegie Mellon University (cmu.edu)

a.. Free Carnegie Mellon Courses Online

Carnegie Mellon University offers a huge collection of free online courses
and course materials through a program known as the Open Learning
Initiative. OLI courses are set up to allow anyone at the introductory
college level to learn about a particular subject without the help of a
formal instructor. Course options include, but are not limited to,
statistics, biology, chemistry, economics, French and physics.

4. Tufts University (tufts.edu)

a.. Free Tufts University Courses Online

Like MIT, Tufts University has OpenCourseWare that is free to everyone.
Courses are sorted by school (School of Medicine, School of Arts and
Sciences, etc.) and include lecture notes, assignments and other
supplementary materials.

5. Stanford (stanford.edu)

a.. Stanford Courses on iTunes U

Stanford University, one of the world's leading academic institutions, has
joined forces with iTunes U to provide access to Stanford courses, lectures,
interviews and more. Courses can be downloaded and played on your iPod, PC,
or Mac and can also be burned to a CD. If you don't have iTunes, you can
download it here for free.

6. University of California, Berkeley (berkeley.edu)

a.. Free UC Berkley Courses Online

UC Berkley has been offering live and on-demand webcasts of select courses
since 2001. There are now hundreds of current and archived UC Berkley
courses available as podcasts and webcasts. Courses cover a wide range of
subjects, including biology, astronomy, chemistry, computer programming,
engineering, psychology, legal studies and philosophy.

7. Utah State University (usu.edu)

a.. Free Utah State University Courses Online

Utah State University also provides access to an oleo of free online
courses. Study options include everything from Latin and anthropology to
physics and theatre arts. The text based courses are comprehensive and can
be downloaded as a zip file or viewed directly on the site.

8. Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (kutztownsbdc.org)

a.. Free Kutztown University Courses Online

Kutztown University's Small Business Development Center offers the largest
collection of free business and entrepreneurial courses available on the
web. Course topics include accounting, finance, government, business law,
marketing and sales. Interactive case studies, comprehensive text, slides,
graphics and streaming audio all help to demonstrate the concepts presented
in each course.

9. University of Southern Queensland (usq.edu.au)

a.. Free USQ Courses Online

The University of Southern Queensland in Australia provides free access to a
number of different courses through their OpenCourseWare initiative. Courses
from each of the five faculties are available and cover a broad range of
topics, including communication, technology, science, career planning,
teaching and multimedia creation.

10. University of California, Irvine (uci.edu)

a.. Free UC Irvine Courses Online

UC Irvine recently joined the OCW Consortium to begin providing free
university level courses online. Right now, there are only a handful of
options to choose from, but the list is growing. Current courses cover
topics like capital markets, financial planning, human resources and
e-marketing. Course materials typically include syllabi, lecture notes,
assignments and exams.