Dinosaur and not so dinosaur courses online!

While listening to the latest episode of I Know Dino, they brought up a free online college course website called Coursera and mentioned there are some paleontology classes being offered this semester.

If you're not familiar with Coursera, it's a totally free site with university taught classes you can sign up for. You can pay to have a certificate printed stating you passed the course, and apparently certain colleges will give you credit for those certificates. The certifications seem to run about $70, otherwise you can skip that and learn everything for free without the certificates.

Now, I knew about this site, as I was told about it a couple years ago from my good friend Jess, but for whatever reason I never took the plunge. This time around I actually signed up for a total of three classes, two of which haven't started just yet.
The class that has already started is Intro to Evolution and Genetics, which so far I'm really enjoying. The lessons are clear and informative, and the instructor is fun and excited about the subject. One of the lessons is actually a 30mins interview with Jerry Coyne, which is the author of Why Evolution is True, and has a great blog I follow.

I think there's still a day or two left to jump into this class, so I highly recommend it if you're interested in learning some good basics of evolution!

The other two classes I signed up for is Theropod Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds which starts later in January and Ancient Marine Reptiles that starts in February. Both of these courses are taught from professors from the University of Alberta.
I was going to take the Dinosaur 101 class that is offered, but I took a class similar to it in college a couple of years ago, so I skipped it. I heard it's a great class, and a fantastic place to start if you're interested in learning some dinosaur basics. I think the sign up is still open for it too.

Anyway, I figured I'd share my excitement for getting a chance to learn something new and exciting without paying thousands of dollars to do so. I never did get a chance to finish school, so it's awesome to feel like I'm back in the classroom again.

-M