Online Education Archives

Never stop learning with Coursera!

Techboomers is your online source for learning the basics of using the most popular websites and applications on the Internet in simple, easy-to-understand steps (or at least, we hope we are!). Now, wouldn’t it be nice if there was a website like us that could teach you skills normally reserved for post-secondary education, without the monetary and logistic conundrums of actually setting foot on a campus? One of the best websites in that model is Coursera.org. Seniors Taking Classes Online with Coursera
Coursera has partnered with top universities and educational organizations across the United States and beyond to make post-secondary learning available through the Internet via massively-open online courses (M.O.O.C.s). Coursera offers courses in subjects such as business, engineering, computer technology, social science, medicine, and more! These courses are available in several countries around the world, and some can even count as credits towards completing a degree!

So what exactly is Coursera?

Coursera is an open online course website featuring post-secondary courses from top global academic institutions. Most courses are free to take, and consist of watching lecture videos and presentations, doing readings, holding discussions with other students, and completing assignments and quizzes. Seniors Taking Classes Online with Coursera
Accreditation is available for some courses (and groups of courses), but requires additional processing, such as verifying your identity on assignments and paying money.

How does Coursera work?

3 steps to getting an education on Coursera

1. Sign up for a free account on Coursera, and choose the subject fields that you’re interested in.

Signing up for Coursera is easy and costs you no money. Simply enter your name, email address, and a password, or log in through your Facebook account. Then tell verify your email address and tell Coursera what you’d like to learn about, and you’re done! Seniors Taking Classes Online with Coursera

2. Pick the courses that you want to take, and decide whether you want accreditation from them, or just the knowledge.

Coursera has nearly 1500 university-level courses for you to discover, spread across 9 broad academic disciplines. You can get recommendations based on your preferred disciplines, or search for a particular course on your own. Some courses are open year-round, while others have specific enrollment dates and run times, so be sure to look for this information before you sign up!
Many courses allow you to earn a “learner’s certificate” that you can show off on your résumé, or (in rare cases) credit towards a university degree. And some courses are part of “specializations”, groups of related courses that let you master a particular field of study all in one go! (Note that both of these things cost money, though.)
Seniors Taking Classes Online with Coursera

3. Get down to studying with readings, lectures, class discussions, assignments and quizzes, and more!

Once you’ve joined a course or two on Coursera, it’s time to hit the books! Check the weekly modules for course information, readings, lecture videos, and presentation slides. Head to the discussion forums and chat with your fellow Coursera classmates about what you’re learning. Demonstrate your skills by completing assignments and quizzes. Each course is different, so the assignments that you receive may work a bit differently for each one. Just stick to the deadlines, and you’ll be fine!
Seniors Taking Classes Online with Coursera
It’s not quite the same as the on-campus treatment, but Coursera is one of the next best ways to get a higher learning experience from the comfort of your own home. It features real courses taught by real professors at top colleges and universities around the world. Best of all, you can use most of it totally for free! So if you’re ready to pursue your academic aspirations, follow along with our Coursera course as we walk you through everything from signing up to registering for courses to completing your course work and getting that feeling (or perhaps a physical symbol) of achievement! We won’t be doing your homework for you, though. Sorry. Seniors Taking Classes Online with Coursera

Are you someone who likes to continually learn new things for professional and personal growth? If you answered “yes,” then you are likely a lifelong learner. Fitting this positive attribute into today’s busy lifestyles can be challenging. Distance learning through online classes provides a flexible, affordable and economical way to achieve your educational goals. Online Classes for the Lifelong Learner
Simply put, learning that takes place outside the confines of a typical classroom environment – where you and the source of the information are separated by time, distance or both – can be defined as distance learning. For working adults it provides flexibility that makes possible the expansion of your knowledge base regardless of income, disability or age.
While distance learning may be a new concept to many adult learners who are veterans of traditional, classroom-based education, it has been successfully practiced for centuries by internationally renowned institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge. Many colleges in the U.S. accept credit awarded through distance learning or offer such programs themselves. One of these, Excelsior College, has been an accredited leader in this field for more than 40 years and focuses on meeting the needs of adult learners.
Online courses offered by colleges and universities cover the same subject matter taught in traditional classrooms, often by the same professors, and are growing in popularity. Online courses can provide you with energizing, interactive discussions with fellow students and instructors. Like those in classroom-based courses, you pay tuition and appropriate fees and may submit written assignments and take tests in order to receive grades and college credit.
Credit-by-examination programs offer motivated, independent learners the ability to study a specific subject matter at their own pace and then demonstrate mastery of the topic by taking an exam to earn college credit. You can prepare for exams using a variety of sources including standard textbooks, on-the-job training, and “open courseware” or college-level course material made available online for free by some of the nation’s top education providers. Regardless of the source, once confident in your preparation, you take an examination at one of the hundreds of secure facilities available around the country. To earn college credit for the successful completion of exams, it is important to make sure the exams have been recognized by the American Council on Education’s College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT). Examples of these include, Excelsior College Examinations (ECE’s), UExcel Exams, CLEP and DSST.
Portfolio assessments offer you the ability to complete a formal process called Prior Learning Assessment (PLA). The PLA approach offers you the opportunity to have your knowledge, regardless of where or how it was learned, evaluated by faculty members who will determine an equivalent level of college credit that could be awarded for knowledge demonstrated in the portfolio. One recent study conducted by the Council for Adult & Experiential Learning (CAEL), found that 56 percent of students utilizing PLA continued on to earn their associate or bachelor’s degree, compared to 21 percent for their non-PLA peers.
Most adult learners combine two or more of these avenues to achieve their educational goals. Most important is that distance learning offers options that are flexible and academically challenging to meet the needs of any committed adult learner, especially those with some college but no degree.
Provided by: ARA

Online Education

Seniors Taking Classes Online with Coursera