“What a miracle is the human mind. Think of its power to assimilate knowledge, to analyze and synthesize. What a remarkable thing is learning… . It is something that need never stop. No matter how old we grow, we can acquire knowledge and use it…” President Gordon B. Hinckley.
Mormons place great value on learning and education. In fact, we are divinely instructed to “seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” (D&C 88:118). This mandate is not limited to things of a spiritual nature. It applies to secular subjects as well. As Mormons or members of the Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter-day Saints we believe that whatever learning we acquire in this life will go with us in the next. (D&C 130:18).
We know that learning is not limited to a formal process of education nor is it limited to inside a “brick and mortar” building. Education can take place anywhere and at any time. Today, the opportunities for learning are almost limitless.
Technology and the Internet have made education and learning even more accessible. Many resources for learning are available free or for a donation online. A large number of these resources are published by respected institutions and organizations. Many colleges and universities sponsor free online courses, lectures, and tutorials. Some may be offered as podcasts.
The following list is a small sampling of what is available.
Brigham Young University offers free online courses in Family History, Family Life and Religious Scripture Study.
John Hopkins University School of Public Health provides free access to the School’s most popular courses. Topics covered include Adolescent Health, Maternal and Child Health, Global Health, Health Issues for Aging Populations, Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, and many more.
The University of Washingon offers free online courses on The American Civil War, Greek Mythology, HTML Basics, The American Revolution, Shakespeare’s Comedies and a few more.
Carnegie Mellon University offers a “collection of openly available and free online courses and course materials that enact instruction for an entire course in an online format.” These subjects are geared to a college freshman level. Avaiable subjects are: Engineering Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Causal Reasoning, Logic and Proofs, French, Economics, and Empirical Research Methods.
Penn State offers free online language courses in Swedish and Hungarian.
Massachutes Institute of Technology (MIT) Open Course Ware “shares free lecture notes, exams, and other resources from more than 1700 courses spanning MIT’s entire curriculum.”
Wharton Community College has compiled a list of free online tutorials for Math. It includes tutorials on Algebra, Calculus, Trignometry and others.
Tufts University offers free online courses on medicine, dentistry, nutrition, and more.
Free-ed.net offers a wide variety of courses. It “is committed to providing an online school where users from around the world can study, take courses, and participate in online community activities at no cost.”
BBC offers free Online Broadcast and New Media Courses. These courses were actually used by the staff at BBC for training purposes. You can take a course on Video Production, Interviewing for Radio, and a number of other media related topics.
Don’t forget that books have always been a valuable resource for learning. Our public libraries contain a wealth of knowledge waiting to be utilized. With only a few exceptions, the collected written knowledge of the entire world can be accessed with a minimum of effort at your library. Reading is one of the greatest things we can do if we want to be a learned people. Even if we don’t have time to take a course, we all have time to read a little every day.
Once you decide to add to your learning and to enhance your education, go ahead and do it. Don’t put it off for another day. Start looking for that topic you’ve always wanted to learn more about. You’ll be amazed how much is freely available once you get started. You’ll probably wonder what took you so long.
