Who do you think is the largest supplier of free online learning? MIT? Stanford? Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learn Initiative? iTunesU? The UK’s OpenLearn? The Khan Academy? The University of the People?
Well, what about ALISON? Who, you may ask, is ALISON? ALISON.com is ‘the world’s leading free online learning resource for basic and essential workplace skills. ALISON provides …. interactive multimedia courseware for certification and standards-based learning.‘
Alison celebates its 5th birthday this week, and claims to have one million registered learners spread across nearly 200 countries worldwide. Although only started in 2007, ALISON graduated over 50,000 people in Certificate and Diploma courses in 2011.
Alison stands for ”Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online”. It is based in Ireland and uses mainly a mix of advertising and sponsored programs from partners and publishers to enable students to take the courses free of charge.
I’d be interested in hearing from people with experience of studying with Alison.
Alison is a great site and I know of many learners that have been able to take advantage of their free educational content. I would like to also point out that GCFLearnFree.org is a large provider of free online learning.
As a staff member of the GCFLearnFree.org, I’m completely biased! However, the facts do speak for themselves. We also have over a million registered learners at 1,152,817 but we stopped requiring visitors to register for an account in Summer 2010 so we’ve obviously seen a drop in registered learners. This has only allowed us to serve even more people however! In 2011 alone, we had over 6 million visitors from every country except North Korea and served over 2 million (served means learners consumed content in some way, whether it was by reading a lesson, viewing a video tutorial, or playing an interactive game). Since we began our online classes in 2002, we have awarded over 67,000 CEUs.
We are able to do this because we are a program of Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina; revenue from our retail stores 100% fund this program. We do not rely on ANY government funding, grants, donations or online advertising. I would wager that we are one of the larger online learning sites available that is completely free and free of all advertising.
Tony, just for the record, Yacapaca has 2.4M registered students and 90,000 registered teachers. And it’s free.
@IG-S: Whilst yacapaca might have all those things, Tony’s question was pitched at more advanced learning in higher education / further education. Therefore, one might say ALISON is more of a further education resource and really is no competition for the likes of MIT, Stanford, CM or even OU.
All the best!
Tony – as an experienced learner (in age and qualifications (MArch, MA, ProfQual)) I’ve completed one certificate in Sustainable Development and I’m currently undertaking their Diploma course in Environmental Science in advance of a career change into Sustainable Development.
With both course materials provided by the Open University through their OpenLearn project, I’m finding the content quality is good/very good and really interesting, the material presentation/delivery method good (albeit in Flash so I need the Puffin browser on my iPad) and the overall course administration and delivery outstanding, with continuous progress updates and a straightforward syllabus plan.
I’ve not chosen to say the content is outstanding, as it’s pitched at a post-high school level, which I have found lacking in some detail. That said, the more detail it has, the longer it will take to get through, and they are introductory courses not advanced level Harvard. And they are free.
If I were to nit pick, I would recommend some links to investigate key issues further, the inclusion of higher-quality graphics and diagrams, and inclusion of some video content (albeit several of the courses are delivered by video/interactive presentations).
Overall, a good spread of topics and definitely a strong recommendation for general interest or knowledge supplementation, but I wouldn’t suggest trying to get a job solely off the back of the certificate courses.
Best of luck to everyone!
Many thanks, Richard. great to have your feedback and if others have experience in using in using OERs or studying with organizations using OERs I’d like to hear from you.
I have enrolled in the ALISON Dip. Social Media Marketing and I must say I am impressed with the attention to detail and quality of delivery by the chosen instructors. I already have a BA degree in Geography & Resource Development but decided to charter a career path in online marketing particular social media marketing. The lessons I got at alison enabled me to set up my blog and personal business (http://www.sparkssocialmedia.com) strictly from following the lessons plus some personal research. I must say overall, it is an excellent resource as far as my course area is concerned and I will highly recommend it to anyone who has interest in personal development. I intend to start their Dip. Project Management once i’m done with the current one. My 2 cents…:)
Hi all, just came across this blog…very interesting comments…what I’m keen to clarify is the actual accreditation of these certificates and diplomas. So far, all I’ve found is that there is reference to NQF level equivalents, but no actual acrreditation references. In my mind this begs the question…..are these certificates and diplomas recognised ? I have an MBA and have enrolled for the Dip in Project Management with a view to supplementing my resume….I hope it’s not in vain…
No sure I can help with this, Mike. I don’t think Alison offers credits itself, but the original providers of the online materials, so the accreditation is as strong or as weak as the offering institution. It’s then up to an employer to decide the value of the certificate. If you are already employed by a medium to large organization the HR department might be able to tell you whether the employer will recognize the qualification.
Anyone else want to comment on this?
I’ve found it very much depends on the publisher as to the quality of the materials. Having studied a business degree at the Open University and having covered a lot of the HRM theory therin, I found that the Open Learn published Diploma of Human Resources was excellent and quite faithful to the original materials (albeit in a more easily digested format). The same can’t be said for many of those courses I’ve had a dabble with that are produced by other publishers. Consequently, the quality of the Open Learn materials plus the fact that they are produced by a recognised UK academic body means that I now choose to study with this one publisher alone – and get a great deal from it too.