How to free education at Stanford, Princeton or Berkeley
What happens to study? ¿Fundamentals of pharmacology, Greek and Roman mythology, introduction to genomics? Who would want to study the classes? ¿Faculty of Stanford University, Princeton, Berkeley?
Well, if you have internet access, all that you can do from home thanks to a program developed in California, USA, in collaboration with some of the most prestigious institutions in the world. And it's free.
The program, called Coursera, offers 36 courses designed by renowned professors from the universities of Pennsylvania, Michigan, in addition to those listed above.
Open doors
The founders are Daphne Koller Coursera and Andrew Ng, professors of computer science at Stanford University, who had three of his courses designed for public access so successful that they decided to expand the project and reach a worldwide audience.
"Education is the great leveler. Gives knowledge, enables and empowers people," said Dr. Koller told the BBC. "Stanford has amazing teachers and other institutions of equal level and we wanted to make their courses accessible to students around the world."
Michael Corry, Professor of Education and Technology Leadership at George Washington University (GWU), which offers online home runs, agrees the benefits of distance education and online.
"Remove the obstacles to higher education presents opportunities no matter where they are and opens doors previously closed to many" he said.
Professor Corry emphasizes what he calls "structured flexibility" of the online courses. By that he means that, within an established framework can be adjusted when a student takes the class, does the corresponding work and examinations according to their own agenda.
"That is key for many students who have full time jobs. They like him a lot," he said.