Did you know that you can take free college courses online?  I know it sounds too good to be true, but it isn’t!  Now, before I get into details on how you can find these courses, you’ll have to keep in mind that you won’t get a degree with these classes, but rather learn about the subject.  Nonetheless, you’re going to become educated, regardless of if you pay or not.

Google can become your best friend

I use Google for everything, and when you want to find free classes, Google is your best friend.  Try a quick search for anything “open course ware” or “open course ware software”, and look for the results.  If you’re looking for something particular, like art, or business, add business to your search to see what comes up.

Look to your local university or college

You’ll be surprised that many of your local colleges, and universities offer free courses online.  Head to their website, or call up to see if they have any free courses on the Internet.  A lot of these colleges do this to either get the word out, or give you a feel of what the classes are like, just in case you want to enlist in the future.

Go outside of the actual colleges

Sometimes, you may find that self teaching yourself is the best way to go.  If you’re looking to learn a particular skill like a programming language, or how to use a particular piece of software, you may be better off just learning it online.  If you wanted to master say, Microsoft Word, you could do a search for “free Microsoft Word tutorials” to see what comes up.  There are a lot of sites online that offer very nice tutorials for free.

Check with your local library

Head down to your local library to see if they have some courses that you can take.  A lot of the times, you’ll find that they offer free courses for it’s residents in the area.  Since you’re putting your hard tax dollars at work, you should take full advantage of them!

These are the 4 things that I would try first when looking for free college coursework.  If all else fails, ask a friend, or continue to search.  Free always beats anything, especially when it comes to learning.