Educate yourself... for free!

Educate yourself.  For Free!

I have read and heard quite a lot about free online training.  Up till 3 weeks ago I ignored these... what good quality can you get if the training is provided for free?
Well, I made a mistake.  There are indeed VERY good quality training available that does not cost anything, except for time and commitment!

I have enrolled for a 12 week Computer Network course at Coursera.  www.coursera.org
I work in IT and one of my challenges is how to keep up to date with all the different technologies out there?  The field is so broad and doing online training is one way to keep abreast of developments in the field.  I am a firm believer that knowledge is power.

Coursera provide university level short courses in many fields of study.  Biology, art, mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence, engineering, music, medicine, law, animal behavior, you name it!   The courses are presented online through short video clips (about 10 x 15 minute video clips per week) with slide packs, short questions, and a weekly review set of questions.  They provide forums for discussions around the topics.  Excellent!  You will see well known universities presenting the courses e.g. University of Washington, Stanford University, Berklee College, University of Pittsburgh, etc.
I am impressed and can recommend them.

An alternative to Coursera that I would like to investigate is the free training provided by Khan Academy.