Upgrade Your Skills and Knowledge: A Grad Student’s Guide to MOOCs

As the name implies, MOOCs offer open access — which means they’re widely available to learners for free or a small fee. Even if you opt for a low-cost course, it’s a fraction of what tuition would cost for a single class at an accredited university. This opens many doors to exploring new skills and interests without adding to the burden of tuition costs.

If you’re a grad student, you likely enjoy the benefits of online learning. In fact, according to The University of Texas at El Paso, 22% of graduate students in the United States exclusively study online. With MOOCs, graduate students can take advantage of this attractive online learning mode — but through courses that span thousands of different skills and interest sectors and can be completed at your own pace. This means that you can take a MOOC anywhere in the world, on your own terms!

What makes MOOCs so attractive for millions of people around the world can be summarized in one word: flexibility. Whereas a traditional online program or school will likely offer a class in a specific learning mode, MOOCs allow you the freedom to choose your optimal style and pace. Most are asynchronous, meaning you can complete work when it’s convenient for you. However, it’s important to note that some are synchronous because they sync with traditional semesters at higher-level institutions such as MIT or Harvard for college credit, so be sure to do your research to ensure the learning structure and pacing are right for you.

One of the best things about MOOCs is that they are open to anyone. While universities have to adhere to a strict admission process for degrees and programs, MOOCs are available worldwide to anyone with an internet connection. Additionally, there are no prerequisites, test scores or minimum GPAs needed to start a MOOC — just the desire to learn or expand your knowledge.

While you need to apply and enroll in specific semesters at a university, many MOOCs are asynchronous and allow learners to sign up and start any time. Some MOOCs may have assessments with deadlines, but they’ll often allow learners the flexibility to move through the course at their own pace. It’s important to note that every program is different, and there are a variety of options to suit individual preferences.

Some of the earliest MOOCs were offered by universities like Stanford, MIT, and Harvard, where professors opened up access to anyone who wanted to join the class. And still today, many courses are taught by the same professors who teach on-ground and online college classes, and their curriculum closely mirrors the course materials provided to enrolled students at a university.

While most MOOCs are free and don’t offer college credit, some MOOCs are specifically designed to allow you to earn academic credit after completing the course. Oftentimes, this requires a fee to enroll in the MOOC, and sometimes a fee to also enroll in a degree program at the university through which it’s offered. Some MOOC platforms — like edX — have partnered with universities to offer credit pathways into degree programs, allowing high school, undergraduate, and graduate students to translate these courses into college credit toward their degree.

As a graduate student, you’re focused on earning a master’s degree in your desired field. MOOCs allow you to supplement your education, meaning you can explore other marketable skills and interests without the pressure or burden of meeting strict degree requirements. You’ll walk away from MOOCs with new knowledge — and perhaps piqued interest in new areas — but you won’t be burdened with minimum credits or a thesis defense on the horizon.

The topics taught through MOOCs are only limited by the instructors’ imaginations. When you enroll in a traditional academic program, there are only so many subjects that can be expertly taught and a finite number of ways to organize the information into a degree path for enrolled students. Because MOOCs are taught by a global community of experts across every topic and field using personalized coursework and lectures, students can explore an endless variety of subjects.

Thinking about enrolling in a program but unsure if you’ll enjoy the content? MOOCs are a great way to test out grad-level classes for free (or for far less than typical tuition) before you enroll in an expensive grad school program. This allows you to freely explore your interests and see what ignites a passion with far less risk and pressure. So think outside of the box and dip your toes into new fields of interest without a scary commitment!

You’re already studying and earning credits towards your graduate degree; why not try your hand at learning something totally different? Through MOOCs, you can brainstorm topics that’ll make you more employable — and that often are leading-edge skills that your college may not even be considering yet. Interested in artificial intelligence, for example? Many MOOCs are tackling the topic, even before colleges are able to add courses to existing programs. No matter what you’re studying in graduate school, you can level up your resume for free with marketable skills offered by top MOOC platforms.

The U.S. Department of Labor says soft skills offer a “competitive edge,” adding that employers rate them as “even more important to work readiness” than the technical skills necessary to perform a job. Examples of soft skills include networking, teamwork, interpersonal communication, virtual presentation skills, people management, and other facets of emotional intelligence and workplace dynamics. While these aren’t always part of a curriculum in your graduate program, MOOCs can fill in those gaps. edX offers free soft skills courses that can complement the hard skills learned in your graduate studies, while it also offers a six-course certificate program in partnership with Rochester Institute of Technology that will help boost your resume.

When taking graduate courses, you’ll often be studying alongside a small subset of students and professors. The cost and proximity limits imposed by a graduate program often mean you’ll have fewer chances to collaborate with students from diverse backgrounds. Because MOOCs are widely accessible throughout the world — like this Case Western Reserve University MOOC that had students from 215 countries, 60% from outside the U.S. — you’ll open the doors to learning in an extremely diverse classroom full of new ideas and fresh perspectives.

Graduate degree programs require you to gain a lot of knowledge in a compressed amount of time. By enrolling in MOOCs either before or during your master’s study, you can learn many of the skills ahead of time that you’ll be tackling down the road. If you know, for example, that you’ll need to tackle a statistics class for your thesis, you can enroll in an online MOOC beforehand to learn the basics before you’re taking the course for credit. Further, some MOOCs can offer you college credit for these courses, meaning you’ll end up taking less time to earn your degree.

Maybe your undergraduate years were all spent on campus in a traditional university setting, but you’re looking at flexible online courses for your graduate degree. MOOCs are a great way for students to test out the online learning format before you commit to enrolling in an expensive program. See if you have the self-discipline, organizational skills, and time management aptitudes necessary for virtual learning — before investing in a serious commitment of time and money.