Importance of Lifelong Learning

Learning does not stop once you graduate from school; it is a lifelong process. What you learned in school or at your current job will not necessarily be enough to keep you relevant and employed in the future.  

Consider the following scenarios:

• You land a job in a great company whose corporate offices are in Brazil, and you are not eligible for promotion because you cannot speak Spanish, a requirement of the position.
• Your job is going to be outsourced to another country where labor is much cheaper.  Do you have other skills that can help land you a new position, in a new industry?
• What if your job is automated, and your position eliminated?
• What if you want to earn more money but don’t have the necessary degree, certification or license to apply for a specific position?
• What if the programming language you learned is obsolete in a few years?

The demands of work and family, coupled with financial constraints, make it difficult for some people to engage in continuing education.  If you love the idea of learning, without paying the high costs of education while studying at your own pace, opportunities are plenty.  There are hundreds of free on-line classes or e-books that you can access from anywhere in the world. In fact, we made a list of a bunch resources at the end of this blog for your convenience.

Options for Free Learning

• Massive Open Online Classes (MOOCs)

Attend classes online with students from Harvard, Berkeley, Yale, and other great universities from around the world. Study grammar, program in JAVA, learn a foreign language, anything that piques your interest.  (See below for MOCCs website links by subject category)

• Learn while you drive

Listen to podcasts, audible books, apps on smartphone (whatever works for you).  Pick from varying business topics to biographies to foreign languages. Perhaps you want to learn how to invest? How about understanding basic financial terms?

• Learn while you exercise

Listen to books, podcasts, or even Ted Talks while exercising at the gym, in your home or in the outdoors. Is there a better way to get both the body and mind going?

• Learn while you wait  

With smartphones, it is easy to access reading materials, videos, etc., regardless of your location. Whether waiting at the doctor’s office, airport, train station, or school, be sure to learn while you wait.

• Free learning

Remember, you can access free materials at your local library. It does not have to cost to learn.

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Links to Good Reads about Learning to Stay Relevant

Learning On the Go: Great Podcasts for Your Commute (or Anytime) by Bonnie Lathram

Student Advocate Bonnie Lathram reveals, “I spend between three and four hours a week in my car commuting to my job at Getting Smart. I have been listening to podcasts in my car as a way to keep learning. I actively pursue podcasts that make me think, provide insight or inspiration, make me laugh, and may connect to my work.” . . .  read more

Grow as You Go: The Importance of Lifelong Learning by Norah Martin

Author Norah Martin asserts that merely finishing college is not enough. She suggests, “Only after you have started working and being active professionally do you realize that most of the things you’ve been taught in college are fine when left to the world of education, but that in real life, some additional skills are also needed.” . . .  read more

Following are links to learning websites by subject matter as provided by Marcandangel.com.

MULTIPLE SUBJECTS

Edx.org-online courses from top universities, covering over 35 subjects.

Open Culture Online-online platform that offers over 1200 courses, audio books, movies and more.

Alison-this online platform provides over 750 free courses

Coursera – online courses from top universities, covering over 2000 courses.

OpenLearn –free access to The Open University course materials. 

Open Yale Courses – This project provides lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses to the public free of charge via the Internet.  The courses span the full range of liberal arts disciplines, including humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences.
YouTube EDU – Educational videos on YouTube organized by subject matter.
iTunes U – Hundreds of universities — including Stanford, Yale and MIT — distribute lectures, slide shows, PDFs, films, exhibit tours and audio books through iTunes U. 

UMass Boston OpenCourseWare – Various online classes provided free by UMass Boston.
TED – Motivational and educational lectures from noteworthy professionals around the world.
Udemy- an online learning platform. It is aimed at professionals who want to add new skills to their resumes, or explore their passions. Nominal fee.

BUSINESS AND MONEY

MIT Sloan School of Management – MIT Sloan is a world-class business school long renowned for thought leadership and the ability to successfully partner theory and practice.  This is a subsection of the larger MIT OpenCourseWare site.
Investopedia Financial Investing Tutorials –lessons on money management and investing.
U.S. Small Business Administration Training Network –Topics include everything from starting a business and business management to government contracting and international trade.
My Own Business, Inc. – Offers a free online business administration course beneficial to new managers and anyone interested in starting a business. This comprehensive course is split into 16 sessions covering topics like business plans, accounting, marketing, insurance, e-commerce and international trade.
UC Irvine OpenCourseWare (Business) – Rapidly learn with the addition of nearly 10 new courses every month.
Financial Management Training Center – This site provides several free downloadable business courses for people who need to learn the finer points of financial management. All courses offered can be taken online; courses include full exams as well as evaluation forms for those seeking Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits.
TheStreet University – If you’re just starting out as a stock and bond investor or need a refresher’s course, this is the place to learn what you need to know.

MATHEMATICS

University of Oxford Mathematical Courses- Various online mathematics classes provided free by Oxford University.
UMass Boston Mathematics – Various online mathematics classes provided free by UMass Boston.
VideoLectures.net(Mathematics) – A free and open access educational video lectures repository. 

AMSER Mathematics – (the Applied Math and Science Education Repository) is a portal of educational resources and services built specifically for use by those in Community and Technical Colleges but free for anyone to use.
Math.com – Math.com is dedicated to providing revolutionary ways for students, parents, teachers, and everyone to learn math.
Khan Academy – Over 1,200 video lessons covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, and biology.
 

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

New York State University (US), Computer Science – Hundreds of lectures, tutorials and links to educational material.
Dream.In.Code Tutorials – Multiple helpful computer programming tutorials.
MIT OpenCourseWare (Engineering and Computer Science) – MIT OpenCourseWare is a free web-based publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
FreeComputerBooks.com  – Free computer, mathematics, technical books and lecture notes.
W3Schools – Web-building tutorials, from basic HTML and XHTML to advanced XML, SQL, Database, Multimedia and WAP.
FreeTechBooks.com – This site lists free online computer science, engineering and programming books, textbooks and lecture notes, all of which are legally and freely available over the Internet.
Free Computer Tutorials – Free computer courses and tutorials site. All the courses are aimed at complete beginners, so you don’t need experience to get started.
Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code – Several helpful resources for computer programming beginners.

ENGLISH AND COMMUNICATIONS

Open Yale Courses (English) – Open Yale Courses provide lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses to the public free of charge via the Internet.
MIT Writing and Humanistic Studies – The MIT Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies gives students the opportunity to learn the techniques, forms, and traditions of several kinds of writing, from basic expository prose to more advanced forms of non-fiction prose, fiction and poetry, science writing, scientific and technical communication and digital media.
Merriam-Webster Online – In this digital age, your ability to communicate with written English is a paramount skill.  M-W.com provides the perfect resource to improve your English now.
National Novel Writing Month – Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Guide to Grammar and Writing – Grammar and writing techniques, lessons and quizzes.
Purdue Online Writing Lab – Over 200 free resources including lessons on: writing, research, grammar, and style guides.

FOREIGN and SIGN LANGUAGES

American Sign Language Browser – Teach yourself sign language online.
One Minute Languages – Learn a new language via podcasts that are updated regularly.
Duolingo-practice a new language online or app.

Mango Languages – Over 100 lessons, shown to you in PowerPoint style with interstitial quizzes, to move you through any language without cracking a book.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH

MIT OpenCourseWare – A free web-based publication of MIT course materials, they reflect almost all undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
Tufts OpenCourseWare –  Tufts’ course offerings demonstrate the University’s strength in the life sciences in addition to its multidisciplinary approach, international perspective and underlying ethic of service to its local, national and international communities.
HowStuffWorks Science – More scientific lessons and explanations than you could sort through in an entire year.
Harvard Medical School Open Courseware – The mission of this Initiative is to exchange knowledge from the Harvard community of scholars with other academic institutions, prospective students, and the general public.
Khan Academy – Over 1,200 video lessons covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, and biology.
webcast.berkeley – Every semester, UC Berkeley webcasts select courses and events for on-demand viewing via the Internet.  webcast.berkeley course lectures are provided as a study resource for both students and the public.
Johns Hopkins OpenCourseWare – The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s OpenCourseWare project provides access to content of the School’s most popular courses.
Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative – No instructors, no credits, no charge.  Use these self-guiding materials and activities to learn at your own pace.
Utah State OpenCourseWare – A collection of educational material used in the formal campus courses, that seeks to provide people around the world with an opportunity to access high quality learning opportunities.
AMSER – (the Applied Math and Science Education Repository) is a portal of educational resources and services built specifically for use by those in Community and Technical Colleges but free for anyone to use.
Wolfram Demonstrations Project – This open-code resource brings computational exploration to the widest possible audience and uses dynamic computation to illuminate concepts.  Free player runs all demos and videos.
Free Science and Video Lectures Online! – A helpful collection of video lectures and lessons on science and philosophy.
Science.gov – Searches over 42 databases and over 2,000 selected websites from 14 federal agencies, this gateway to U.S. Federal Science offers 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information including research and development results.
The National Science Digital Library – The Nation’s online library for education and research in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics.
EnviroLink Network – A non-profit organization, grassroots online community uniting global organizations and volunteers, it provides up-to-date environmental information and news.
Geology.com – Provides information about Geology and Earth Science to visitors without charge: articles, news, maps, satellite images, dictionary, etc.
Scitable – A free science library and personal learning tool that currently concentrates on genetics, the study of evolution, variation, and the rich complexity of living organisms. 
LearningScience.org – A free, open learning community for sharing newer and emerging tools to teach Science.

HISTORY AND WORLD CULTURE

University of Washington’s OpenUW – Explore a variety of learning in several free history-centric online courses from the University of Washington.
Notre Dame OpenCourseWare – Notre Dame OCW is a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners throughout the world.
Bio’s Best – Biography.com’s most popular biographies on notable historical figures.
UC Irvine OpenCourseWare (Social Science) – Learn rapidly with the addition of nearly 10 courses every month. Many of the OCW offerings are directed at working adults seeking continuing education, with the option to enroll in instructor-led, for-credit courses, related to the OCW content.
MIT OpenCourseWare (History) – The MIT History Faculty offers about 70 subjects in Ancient, North American, European, East Asian, and Middle Eastern history.
OpenLearn (Arts and Humanities) – This website provides free access to The Open University course materials.
A Biography of America – This video instructional series presents history not simply as a series of irrefutable facts to be memorized, but as a living narrative of America’s story.
Have Fun with History – A resource for students, educators and all lovers of American History.
The USGenWeb Project – Free genealogy and family history resources online.
MacroHistory and World Report – This site tells without illusions or ideological restraints the story of our ancestors, our parents and us.
World History HyperHistory – Navigates through 3,000 years of World History with links to important people and events of world historical importance.
American Digital History – An online American history textbook, it provides an interactive, multimedia history of the United States from the Revolution to the present.

LAW

Duke Law Center for the Public Domain – Duke University is counted among the best schools in the South. If you’re interested in law, Duke’s open courseware in that subject area can help you learn more about the justice system.
American University – Offers a selection of podcasts on various law-related subjects, including an interesting podcast on debt relief and the law.
Harvard Law School – Provides numerous webcasts of law lectures, symposia, panels and conferences. A valuable collection of relevant information and insights on how the law interacts with current events.
Stanford Law – Provides open courseware via iTunes on various law subjects, including the theory of justice, mobile content distribution, gay marriage, judicial review and privacy protection. The tracks are available for free, but you’ll need iTunes. Put the lectures on your iPod or iPhone and listen to them anywhere.
 

FREE E-BOOKS

BookYards – BookYards is a web portal in which books, education materials, information, and content is free to anyone with an Internet connection.
Planet eBook – Free classic literature to download and share.
E-Books Directory – Thousands of eBooks on various subjects to download and share.
Read Print Library – Free online books library for students, teachers, and the classics enthusiast.

Public Literature – Thousands of familiar classics, children’s books, plays and poems, as well as books by new authors.
Many Books – Free fiction and nonfiction eBooks for your PDA, iPod or eBook reader.
Get Free Books – Thousands of free eBooks to download.
Project Gutenberg – More than 20,000 free books from the first producer of free e-Books.
Classic Reader – Large collection of free classic books, plays, and short stories from more than 300 authors.
Bartleby Fiction – Classic anthologies and volumes.
The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List – MBA programs don’t have a monopoly on advanced business knowledge: you can teach yourself virtually everything you need to know to succeed in life and at work.  The Personal MBA features the very best business books available, based on thousands of hours of research.
Books Should Be Free – Free audio books from the public domain.