Litabi
In recent years, there has been an increasing concern in the question of how open access to free educational sources affects the cost of higher education.
Such factors as the increasing cost of traditional course books, one’s strong demand for low-cost alternatives to official alternative sources, the rise of free online podcasts and lectures, lead to free, high-quality higher education available for students online.
The primary focus of such educational platforms is to make sure that the information that is freely available on the Internet is presented at college-level and leads one’s professional development.
With the rise of free online education, any person who has access to the Internet and possesses the proper knowledge of English can access the sources at any time to learn some new information in own field or easily choose a new course.
One such great platform that takes leading positions is The Saylor Academy created by Michael Saylor in 2008.
The academy offers high-quality free online courses for college students from any country around the world. Every day, the Academy seeks new approaches to secure the availability of credible courses online for students with different background knowledge.
Courses That Are Available On The Platform
In fact, there are more than one hundred courses available today on the platform. Almost all of those courses are completely free, although from time to time some nominal cost is required. Due to the discussed factors, the learning process here is truly fast and simple.
From that time, the Academy that became known as the Saylor Foundation provides a variety of free educational opportunities. The foundation today strives truly hard to meet the society’s growing need for learning.
As a result, it contributes to slashing the cost of higher education and changing one’s biased attitude toward the expensiveness of education.
The courses presented in the academy offer great career advancement, the receiving of digital certificates for completed programs, and, what is more, they are important for individuals with poor income who cannot afford the studying in traditional educational buildings.
Besides, it also should be mentioned that all courses online available within the foundation are approved by the American Council of Education, and this fact supports the credibility of the platform.
The best point for many students who want to have free time for social life is that they are not required to study according to a strict schedule. Due to the existence of online sources, students have an opportunity to learn at their own pace.
Why That Academy Has The High Priority?
As might be expected, with such educational platforms as The Saylor Foundation, open access to high-quality learning opportunities only increases, making interested the learners who could not afford before to pay a fee for education or because of their place of living.
The best aspect is that there is no course tuition or textbook cost required for taking most of the online courses on such platforms as Saylor’s courses. Only if students want to pass an exam after finishing the courses, they should pay only one fee of US$ 25.
Talking about the developers of such courses, Saylor’s elaborators are various independent consultants. There are strict criteria that should be met to take part in developing the courses. First of all, all consultants should possess the needed subject-matter for the course.
Also, some teaching experience is required to make sure that the professional requirements are addressed. The primary job of such online consultants is to create appropriate learning outcomes for the course.
There is always a need in new consultants who will bring new valuable insight for online students and will offer new significant information.
There are no doubts that with the emergence of new technologies and innovations the idea of free higher education will be increasing at a rapid pace. The recent statistics demonstrate that students’ access needs continue to change.
Consequently, educational buildings should change their primary values and purposes to secure proper education for learners. However, the point is that common educational courses online require one’s self-motivation and strong desire to learn.
Only truly committed students will be able to devote their time to receive new knowledge. Besides, there many other factors and negative points about education online. Hence, the Internet and online materials cannot merely solve everything. It is not true that traditional educational buildings become obsolete.
The proper solution to the problem is to find the ways how to combine both traditional and nontraditional ways of receiving an education effectively. The main fact that should be taken into account is that every person should have the right to receive education, and it should be, undoubtedly, at a greatly reduced cost.
Lastly, it is significant to avoid any negative thoughts on the openness of education. The technologies and innovation provide a great opportunity to enhance the learning outcomes and make sure that all students, regardless of their position in society or other factors, have a chance to get knowledge.
Author Bio
My name is Alexia Wolker, I am a blogger and work as an editor. I have a Master’s Degree in literature and love both reading and writing about books and literary topics. I also help students with their literary assignments – articles, essays and summaries of books, my works you can see on Free Book Summary website.
