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Open & Free Courses

Signing Online - Learn American Sign Language Take Any College Class for Free: 236 Open Courseware Collections Written by: Thomas Broderick Universities, colleges, and private organizations offer free online college courses to help students acquire new knowledge and skills. These courses cover a variety of traditional academic topics and other subjects that can lead to career advancement and personal enrichment. Courses occur online, allowing learners from all over the world to participate. At the end of a course, students may qualify for an official certificate. Most online courses provide an introduction to a topic, although there are some intermediary and advanced courses. Some free college courses use the term massive online open course (MOOC). Benefits of Open Courses Free online college courses allow students to learn from home, a significant advantage for learners who prefer to eliminate a commute. In a free college course, learners can explore new academic topics without incurring high tuition costs. Open courses can also expose students to new hobbies. Should You Take Open Courses?

English to French, Italian, German & Spanish Dictionary Open Educational Resources Project (Collections Strand) - OeRBITAL UK Centre for Bioscience OER project - Phase 2 The UK Centre for Bioscience sucessfully bid for funding to undertake a 'Collections Strand' Open Educational Resources project over 2010-2011 following its success with the phase 1 (OER pilot projects) Interactive Laboratory and Fieldwork Manual for the Biosciences project. Working with ten discipline consultants from across the country we have produced a wiki for the benefit of the bioscience community to explore the potential of OERs across a range of disciplines. The intention is to guide staff new to Open Educational Resources in the Biosciences towards those which we believe are valuable examples, and the routes to find them. The OeRBITAL project wiki is available at: The story behind finding, evaluating and enhancing OERs is also captured here, so that we might share and develop a realistic approach to assist other OER users (and developers) with JISC and HEFCE funded projects.

Learn 40 Languages for Free: Spanish, English, Chinese & More How to learn lan­guages for free? This col­lec­tion fea­tures lessons in 48 lan­guages, includ­ing Span­ish, French, Eng­lish, Man­darin, Ital­ian, Russ­ian and more. Down­load audio lessons to your com­put­er or mp3 play­er and you’re good to go. Amhar­ic For­eign Ser­vice Insti­tute Basic Amhar­ic — Audio — Text­bookLessons with dia­logues, drills, exer­cis­es, and nar­ra­tives will teach you the basics of this lan­guage spo­ken in Ethiopia. Ancient Greek Ancient Greek Intro­duc­tion — Web SiteThe UT-Austin Lin­guis­tics Research Cen­ter pro­vides an overview of Ancient Greek and 10 lessons based on famous Greek texts. Ara­bic Book­mark our free Ara­bic lessons sec­tion. Amer­i­can Sign Lan­guage Intro­duc­to­ry Amer­i­can Sign Lan­guage Course — YouTubeBy the end of this course you should have a basic bank of ASL words that you are able to use to form sim­ple sen­tences. Bam­bara Bam­bara in Mali — Web SiteLessons from the Peace Corps. Bul­gar­i­an Cam­bo­di­an Cata­lan Chi­nese Czech Dan­ish Lao

100 Best Open Science Courses on the Web It’s never too late or too early to start expanding your knowledge of science. With the wealth of free courses available on the web, that goal is easier than ever to achieve and can often be done without even leaving the house. The courses listed here will help you get started, offering resources on a wide variety of scientific fields from those that delve into the laws of the universe to those that explain the chemical reactions taking place in your own kitchen. Physics Use these courses to learn about both the basics and some of the more advanced topics in physics. Fundamentals of Physics: In this course Professor Ramamurti Shankar will teach you about the basic principles of physics. Chemistry Give these chemistry courses a try to get a handle on many aspects of the subject. Freshman Organic Chemistry: Use the lessons in this course to teach yourself about the theories and principles of organic chemistry. Biology Study cells, systems, plants and more through these free courses. Astronomy

One Minute Mandarin One Minute Mandarin provides an introduction to basic Mandarin. With this course you will not become fluent, but you will acquire a range of useful expressions which you can use while on a trip to China. Your efforts are guaranteed to make a good impression on people you meet. The phrases included in this course have been specially chosen to help the learner make fast progress on the basics of Mandarin, with each new episode building on previously-learned knowledge. Use the buttons above to access the free audio files in our lesson library, or buy the premium pack in our store. The table below provides further details about the features of the premium edition of One Minute Mandarin.

Learn Chinese - Clear and Easy Mandarin Lessons A Base Vocabulary List for any language Your Base Vocabulary: The first ~625 words [Author's note: Behold, the new, improved list:] Check these out at the Word Lists page! Your Base Vocabulary: Your first 625 words This is a new, improved version of an older list of 400 words. In my own studies, I’ve found that having an extra couple hundred words in the beginning makes everything a lot easier; you feel more comfortable with spelling and pronunciation, you recognize many more words in your textbook, and you can start delving into grammar while feeling like a bad-ass. I’ve culled this list from the General Service List and Wordfrequency.info - two well-made frequency lists for English. I’ve also begun a project to get this list professionally translated into a bunch of languages. How to use this list: Pronunciation (in general): Learn your pronunciation rules. The List(s) A quick note about order I’m providing this list in two formats: a thematic list and an alphabetical list. Order is important. Key: Category words (i.e. Enjoy!

Language Network Resources Three different organizations have been crucial to the development of Chinese language learning K-12 in the U.S., listed here in the order that they became involved in promoting Chinese language instruction since the 1980s: the Chinese Language Association for Elementary-Secondary Schools (CLASS), the College Board, and the Asia Society. Their websites are listed here and should be consulted by those exploring Chinese language programs. • Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary Schools (CLASS) | www.classk12.org The Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary Schools (CLASS) is a national nonpolitical and nonprofit professional association of all persons interested in teaching Chinese language and culture at pre-collegiate levels of American schools. • Chinese Language and Culture Initiatives (College Board) | www.collegeboard.com Listed below this entry are the several programs of the College Board Chinese Language and Culture Initiatives. | back to top |

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