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Online Learning for Free?

© Audrey Choden

Looking for free online courses for your company or yourself? You'll find them on the Web. But are these courses really "free"? And are they really "courses"?

How can learning portals provide free courses and still survive in the competitive e-market? To answer this question, you must first understand the business model that these sites are built upon. The free courses are essentially content that is designed to lure customers to the site. The sites make money from the value-added products and services they sell to corporate and individual customers and from advertising revenue.

Let's explore a few of these sites see what's free and what isn't.

Learnthat.com

As a learning portal, Learnthat.com offers a variety of free online courses and tutorials that cover business and technical topics. Business topics include "Putting Together a Business Plan" and "Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace." On the technical side, Learnthat.com offers courses and tutorials on programming and software use. All courses are self-paced.

I browsed the business plan course developed by The Mississippi State University Extension Service. It's well organized, complete with topic outline, annotations and links to worksheets. However, it is text-based and lacks the necessary learning components such as objectives, practice, feedback, and testing in order to be considered a course. But it is free.

I also previewed a tutorial on Macromedia DreamWeaver, an HTML editing and web management program. The tutorial has animated screenshots and step-by-step directions to perform specific functions. However, the tutorial is only a demonstration; it's not interactive. Unless you have the software you're learning to use, there isn't much point in going through the tutorial. The tutorial is free, but the software is not. Learnthat.com provides a link to Amazon.com so you can purchase DreamWeaver online. How convenient!

When I clicked on the link for company information, I read that Learnthat.com also designs online courses and offers consulting on computer and professional education. This is how the site really makes money. The site also receives revenue from links to advertisers. Click on http://www.learnthat.com to visit this site.

Learn2.com

Learn2.com offers free tutorials. The 2torials, as they are called, offer "concise, step-by-step help with many of life's most common issues and questions." The topics in the Business and Money category include Retain Employees, Write a Business Letter, Choose Employee Benefits, and Negotiate a Raise. The 2torials are basically how-to instructions and do not provide practice, feedback or testing. The 2torials serve as content to attract potential buyers of subscription-based courses.