Have you thought of going to school for the enjoyment of it?

2016-01-20T12:01:18-05:00

I am trying to illuminate a route I can use to enrich my life intellectually by auditing classes. I want to negotiate no test and no essays. Something like art or history. What you say?

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Jan 20 at 2016 12:04 PM

2016-01-20T12:04:26-05:00

Yes, MAJ Ken Landgren I have. One of the great things about the WWW is that there are many free opportunities for learning. I have done my best to learn as much as aI can over the past 30 or 40 years.

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 20 at 2016 12:54 PM

2016-01-20T12:54:24-05:00

..... If only I had won the 1.5 billion power-ball ...

You can actually do that ... many University offer that... I forget what they call that... you just attend the class ... but I think you still need to pay for it, even if you don't earn any credit or grade at all. Some instructor will actually let anyone sit in and listen the class too ... just some ...

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Jan 20 at 2016 2:09 PM

2016-01-20T14:09:37-05:00

That's why I attend school. Do I "need" further education? No. Would I like more? Sure. But I can get more knowledge for the cost of a library card and an internet connection.

Study what interests you!!! The exams and essays can be really rewarding in their own right though. It sends you down rabbit holes of research and reading that you normally wouldn't find.But if you can find a school with a decent program that allows you to audit (creditless), more power to you.

Response by MSgt James Mullis made Jan 20 at 2016 2:34 PM

2016-01-20T14:34:05-05:00

Most Universities will let a student Audit a class, as long as the professor is OK with it and there is available seating in the classroom. While it varies by Institution, most brick and mortar schools charge full tuition rates and require you to be enrolled as a student, even if you are auditing the course.

Fortunately, there are a large number of Courses available for auditing for free on the World Wide Web just do a Google search. Here is favorite site for free online courses (Openculture dot com)

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

1150 Free Online Courses from Top Universities

Download 1,100 free courses from Stanford, Yale, MIT, Harvard, Berkeley and other great universities to your computer or mobile device. Over 30,000 hours of free audio & video lectures.

Response by CDR Kenneth Kaiser made Jan 20 at 2016 8:12 PM

2016-01-20T20:12:46-05:00

Go for it some schools call it auditing a class some have other names for it. The only problem is those course do not count toward a degree, if you find something you like. If at some point you decide to go for another degree this is also a good way to handle what might be a difficult class. Audit it first then take it for credit. In some schools you can sign up for a class take it and drop it by a certain point and work out a deal with the instructor to allow you to sit in on the balance of the class. There are some many interesting things out there, I wish I had known about them in high school I would have been more motivated. For instance my wife and I took four years of woodworking so we could play in retirement. Also another school had a flying club where you could learn to fly a light plane. You never know what is out there and it keeps your brain stimulated.

Response by SGT Jerrold Pesz made Jan 20 at 2016 10:25 PM

2016-01-20T22:25:34-05:00

I have never quit taking classes both in a classroom and on the internet. Before the internet I took correspondence courses by mail. Many were for professional development and more were just because I was interested. In total I have taken several hundred of them and am currently enrolled in a couple of online classes. Unfortunately almost all have involved tests or essays but they are not that hard. One good source of free courses if you don't want to count them towards a degree is Hillsdale College in Michigan. They have a number of courses in such things as history, government and literature. You can watch the lectures online and then take the tests online. Hillsdale is a real accredited brick and mortar university and the online courses are taught by the same real professors as for credit courses and it costs you nothing. If you do a little looking you will find many more.