Non Degree Classes at Colleges

[Deleted]

This is for me, not my children. LOL! 15 years ago, when I got hired for my current job, I was taking what was called "Continuing Education" classes at our local university. There were a variety of classes offered, subjects ranging from personal to professional development. I've been poking around on their website trying to see what they offer these days, but I can't find anything. I can't call them until Monday.

In the meantime, I'd like to look around and see what other colleges offer that I can do online. I have no idea where to start or what schools to look at. I remember a thread from a long time ago where these kinds of classes were discussed. I PM'ed a poster that I think participated in the discussion but she's offline and I'm impatient lol.

Again, I'm not trying to work towards earning a degree right now, I just want to learn something new. I'm not even sure exactly what subject(s) I'm interested in. I can look around and see what piques my interest. Any ideas where to start? I'm clueless.

[Works4me]

In my area, universities/colleges refer to them to as extended education, open university, adult education and/or community programs. I live in CA and found a lot of online classes one of my girls needed by googling online + community colleges.

What areas are of interest to you?

[Shooby]

  You can find a lot of classes in the community as well, not just at colleges.  You can find cooking classes and all kinds of things.  Check out your local chamber of commerce. 

[Deleted]

Straighterline runs a lot of basic courses that I've heard good things about.  It's a small class fee + a monthly fee, so if you want to move through material faster you could cost yourself a very small amount to take classes.  However, it really isn't the same as adult education classes, its more a way to earn some basic college credits inexpensively.

Maybe more interesting are free online classes from Coursera.  They have a variety of topical classes & some are extremely interesting.  No charge, but all on line activity.  

Our local vo-tech school has cool classes on baking, cooking, wine tasting etc that are in line with some of the associates degree classes they offer, but are a more abbreviate version for continuing education.

[dannylion]

Not sure what kind of courses would interest you, but you might check out Great Courses/The Teaching Company if you're just looking for something that interests you that you can do on your own time.  They have courses on CDs.  I have gotten some math, physics, and economics courses from them that have been really interesting and fun to do.  I love sciencey stuff, but was too stupid to be an actual scientist and had to settle for being a linguist.   I'm still too stupid to be a scientist, but now that I'm retired, I've enjoyed having the opportunity to study math and physics without the stress of grades or the pressure of deadlines.  They offer a lot of other courses, too, such as history and political science and psychology and probably pretty much anything a university offers. 

[Deleted]

Our park and rec department does a lot of fun classes. They send out a flyer quarterly. Check there.

[Deleted]

Coursera! That's the one I was trying to remember that had been mentioned here before.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, there are lots of (random) things I wish I knew something/more about. I just need something constructive to do with myself lol. I don't get a lot of regular intellectual stimulation in my daily life (maybe I shouldn't admit that). Although I had to score fairly high on a test to get hired, my job is much more physically demanding than mentally. I don't want to let my mental muscle wither away from lack of exercise any more than it already has. I like learning new things whether it's just for fun or useful, and I have some free time to do it.

Thanks for the great ideas. I'm going to see what I can find. I'm actually excited! LOL

[cronewitch]

My brother is teaching English in Mexico and studying Spanish so for him it is a good retirement hobby. He shouldn't teach since he isn't trained to teach but the English teachers there don't speak English well. They invited him to teach because he was taking Spanish and they had a temp opening.

Our Community colleges offer fluff classes like flower arraigning and cooking for people who just want to study light subjects.

[Deleted]

Just briefly looking at Coursera (I started there because it's free lol), my reaction to browsing the available classes showed me that this is definitely something I need to do. I was immediately intimidated. Even after I clicked on a couple of classes that looked like they might be interesting and saw that they don't require any background other than being able to speak English, I was still thinking "I can't do this". So I must!

I'm going to look around on Coursera some more, search the other options that were posted, and see what's available locally before I make a decision and commitment. I'm still excited. I think this is the best idea I've had in a long time, especially now that I just discovered something about myself that I hadn't realized. I'm disappointed that I doubted myself so quickly.

[Works4me]

Pink - of course you CAN do it! Look at all the other things you have accomplished in life. IIRC, you raised 2 children to adulthood with killing anyone - that alone is remarkable. I always tell myself that if some kid with his pants falling off his ass can do it, so can I!

[Deleted]

Thanks sarahjese.

I'm good. I knew that at some point in life I'd lost confidence in myself in some areas, but I never thought taking an online course that doesn't even matter in the grand scheme of things would intimidate me. I'll get over it. I signed up for one of the cousera classes. It should only take a few hours a week, but I have to wait a while before it starts.

I've looked around on the Community College website. They offer "personal enrichment" classes in their continuing education program, but they don't have any of the "fluffy" classes similar to the cooking or flower arranging ones mentioned here. I could take a motorcycle driving course if I wanted to though. LOL Really, I didn't see anything in the program I was really interested in.

I'd just gone to our Chamber of Commerce website when I had company arrive. I'll work my way through the ideas here and find something that I can start soon. Thanks everyone.

[happyscooter]

Our CC offers one day classes during the summer like Excel, Word, and other classes that you can take in a 6-7 hour time frame.  Or they have other things that don't apply toward a degree and those are every Monday or Tuesday night for a month 7-9.  Public speaking or something in accounting are 2 that come to my mind.  Those are usually $30-35 for the set of classes or the one day class.  There is no homework and you aren't graded.  I did have to write a speech and practice it to give it before the class.  About 12 people.

[susanb]

A number of great schools are now offering online certifications.

I have been checking out some of the ones offered by Berkeley:
extension.berkeley.edu/cert/

[Deleted]

Our CC seems to be different. The continuing education courses are at least $90 (not a barrier for something I'm really interested in) and they don't have the kinds of classes you all are describing.

For anyone that likes coursera, I found another website that seems similar. It's edx.org. Their courses are free too. The course I'm interested in on there is offered through Harvard I think, but it's not until early next year. Who knows what might happen between now and then!

I decided to take a yoga class lol. I've been wanting to try it for years. I'm chicken so I got a friend to agree to go with me. I'm going to start that within the next couple of weeks. I want to see how much of my time that takes up before I make a regular commitment to anything else besides the coursera class I already signed up for.

I'm also a little bit smarter than I was when I started this thread lol. Yesterday I watched a few lectures on 2 subjects I'm interested in. I found those through openculture.com, but it's a bit different from coursera and the other one. From what I've seen so far, it looks like you can just watch or listen to all the lectures from a particular course that was taught in the past. I could be wrong though, there may be more to it. Anyway, once I dip my toe in the water, who knows, maybe I'll end up working towards something that means something in the real world.

I'll add the site for Berkeley to my list. I won't look tonight. If I do, I might end up on the computer all night.