What are the chances of the average Pinoy to get into Harvard or Yale?  Unless you have the grades or the money, or both, your chances are pretty slim.  But don’t worry, there’s good news ahead.  Thanks to the internet, we can access free lectures from these high-profile universities.

And we’re not limited to Ivy League schools either – we can access lectures from most major colleges and universities around the globe.

iTunesU

Apple’s venture into free online learning starts with iTunesU.  Basically, it’s where major universities and colleges upload video and audio lectures which anybody can download for free.  Participating universities include Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and many others.

First of all, you need to have iTunes installed in your computer to access iTunesU. If you don’t have iTunes yet, click here to download it.

Once iTunes is open, click on the “iTunes Store” link on the left sidebar, and when you get to the store, find the link that takes you to iTunesU.  You can then browse lectures by subject or by school.

iTunesU also has a separate section that collects lectures discussing the economic downturn we’re experiencing right now.  You can see this section when you scroll down the iTunesU section of the iTunes Store.

Open Yale

Yale University also recently launched Open Yale, where you can access full lectures on different subjects including Astronomy, BioChemical Engineering, Economics, Physics, History, Philosophy, English, and Political Science.

What I like about the Open Yale courses is that the material is available to you in a variety of ways.  For each lecture, you can download a transcript, an MP3 file, or a video.   Also, you don’t need anything except your internet browser to view the courses.

I haven’t explored Open Yale as much as iTunesU, but here are the courses I’m curious about:

• ENGL 291: The American Novel since 1945
  
• ENGL 310: Modern Poetry (I have unanswered questions about William Carlos Williams)
• PHIL 176: Death

The only downside to Open Yale is that it only has a few courses available right now.  In time,  I hope they add more courses.

Harvard@Home

Harvard University also publishes video lectures, but unlike the Yale lectures, the aren’t really college courses.  The content comprises mostly of panel discussions and guest lectures.  The lectures aren’t organized, so you have to scroll down the entire list to see what they offer.

Princeton University WebMedia

Like the Harvard@Home program, Princeton’s online lectures are panel discussions and special guest lectures. The number of lectures available is also very impressive. The date of the lectures also go as far back as 1998.  The bad news is that the long list of lectures is organized chronologically, rather than by subject – which means you have to scan the entire list to find something you’ll like.

Other Programs:

• MIT World, from MIT
• UChannel, from Princeton.  Mostly lectures on public affairs.
• Oxford Internet Institute, from Oxford University.  Like the name says, the lectures are about internet technology.

Although these free lectures  are great for college students, even working professionals can benefit from them.  After all, a little intellectual growth, no matter how old you are,  never hurts.