Lets hear from students around the country and the world about their experiences with free online higher education.

For a Washington Post story about massive open online courses, aka MOOCs, I looked at a class in biostatistics Johns Hopkins University offers on the Web site Coursera, one of several emerging MOOC platforms.

There are about 15,000 people registered for professor Brian Caffos public health class. I put a couple queries onto Caffos online discussion board and got many e-mail responses. I quoted from three in the story: Mohammad Hijazi, of Beirut; Ephraim Baron, of California; and Patrycja Jabonska, of Poland.

Here is a sampling of others:

I learned aboutCourserathrough a former colleagues Facebook page. He was taking a course and posted it on his FB. I checked out the site, got excited and signed up. Currently Im taking 5 courses simultaneously and I signed up for several more that will start in the near future. Even though these courses give me no advantage when Im looking for positions (Im a HS Math teacher working in international schools) I take them to expand my horizons, so to speak.-- Denes Tilistyak, 31, born in Hungary, lives in China.

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Im taking this course specifically because it helps me relate to the design of health care models and large population health care simulations ... This class also helps familiarize me with the mathematical basis and terminology that I hear on a daily basis at work. Sean C. Ormbeck, 37, of Daly City, California.

Asked how this learning experience compares with his previous schooling, Ormbeck, who has a masters degree in computer science, said: There is less work here to do, since homework and finals are not required, but at the same time, Im at a maturity level in my schooling that if I dont do the work myself, Im only hurting myself.

What I like most about this course is that its not too easy and it also helped me to refresh all my undergrad knowledge that I almost forgot. It required quite a fair bit of my time though. I spent about 3-4 hours a week watching the video and doing quizzes.-- Preeyaporn Srasuebkul, 38, born in Thailand, lives in Australia.

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Continue reading here:
Free online higher ed: Voices from the frontier