New York City‘s Columbia University costs $43,000 a year to attend. Even if you qualify for financial aid, it’s hard to stomach that kind of price tag.
A website called Academic Earth is trying to change this problem. Their mission according to the website, is to “give everyone on earth access to a world-class education.”
The site is chock-full of information, with over 1,500 video lectures from the best professors at the top universities across the country, including Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale. You can watch series of lectures from subjects such as Astronomy, Environmental Studies, International Relations, Medicine, Philosophy and Writing.
Of course you can’t get academic credit for viewing these lectures, and it is by no means a replacement for a college degree, but it gives anyone who has an internet connection the means to learn from some of the smartest people in the world.
Want a taste? Below is a lecture called “The Good Life: Happiness” by Paul Bloom from Yale University. Once you’ve watched a lecture, you can give it a grade. This one earned an A.
Photo by opensourceway via Flickr.