by Lon Elliott

Created on: February 13, 2009

With the wealth of knowledge contained on the Internet today, its impossible to think that with a little effort, that you could not gain a quality education from it. More and more colleges recently have decided to put their course materials for free view by any and all.

There are many pitfalls associated with this approach however. Lets discuss a few and hopefully you will have a game plan for gaining your education, for free.

The first thing you need to recognize is that a college gives you a varied curriculum in order to give you a wide knowledge base. This in itself is easy to overcome on your own. You can visit any college website and view the degree that you are wondering about. On the site it will list the curriculum and the courses the college would need you to take to accomplish this degree. You would simply follow the course plan. Start with the easiest and work towards the hardest.

Next, and probably most important, is the support system that a college offers. If you dont understand a topic, you can ask your professor or classmates to get a better understanding. This also can be done solely on the Internet and for free. There are literaly millions for forums and websites designed to answer questions. You need only to go into a chat room or forum and discuss the topic. The thing you have to be careful of however, is that the large majority of people you will be talking to, will not know what they are talking about. Listen to everyone's opinions. Get all the information before making a decision.

The last and hardest thing to overcome will be the degree. By gaining your knowledge on line, you will of course not get a degree. For some, this is the only reason they go to college. They are less concerned with the knowledge gain, and more concerned with the piece of paper that will allow them to get a good job. This can be overcome, however it will not be free. Many colleges allow you to challenge a class. This allows you to skip taking the class, take the final exam and if you pass, get credit for taking the class. To perform this cheaply, you can challenge as many classes as you can at a local community college, then move on to the four year college to finish.

If you are concerned more about your knowledge than you are about the degree, there is no doubt that you can get a vast and varied education using nothing but the Internet. All it will take on your part is discipline and a desire to gain the knowledge.

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