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Many elite colleges such as Stanford, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have started offering free online courses and students from all over the world are jumping at the chance to learn from the best researchers without paying huge fees and without leaving their homes.

Digital doors are being thrown open by major elite universities and they do not charge anything for offering popular courses from world-renowned scientists and scholars that are open to anyone with an internet connection.

Web-based courses are being offered by colleges for years but a major milestone in digital learning is when all elite universities and colleges started participating. This trend has a huge potential to transform the field of higher education especially at a time when universities and colleges are reeling under massive budget cuts, student protest over high tuition and constantly rising costs.

According to experts, learning can be improved both on campus and online and teaching coasts can be lowered by these online courses. Economic growth and technological innovation can now be fuelled through expansion of higher education access.

American Council on Education president Molly Corbett Broad says that thousands of students will be effectively served by this in such a manner that we cannot imagine today. Many prominent research universities including University of Virginia, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton and Stanford University recently announced their intention of offering online courses.

Investing a total of $60 million, MIT and Harvard University are already offering online courses through a web portal called edX. In competition, Berkeley based University of California has announced its intention of making available online courses for students starting this fall.

According to Robert Birgeneau, the chancellor of UC Berkeley, this trend will completely revolutionize higher education. The demand for online courses continues to rise in spite of the fact that no credits are offered for these courses.

The first online course “Circuits and Electronics” offered by MIT was hugely welcomed with more than 154,000 students registering across 160 countries say EdX officials. Out of this, 7100 students passed.

Head of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Laboratory in MIT Anant Agarwal says that at least 120 universities have shown interest in joining the fray. He says that the quality of higher education will improve drastically and there will be a massive expansion of learning scale worldwide.

As of now, older workers who wish to upgrade their skills are registering for these courses. These are people who are employed and do not have the time or resources to attend the course on-campus.
Online courses are offered with a variety of features such as high-caliber curriculum, open admissions, interactive technology and the opportunity to reach out to thousands of students simultaneously.

According to the universities, online courses are as strenuous as the on-campus courses.
Experts say that it is possible for students to graduate faster if more schools offer online teaching. These online classes can offer great savings for students who can also gain knowledge effectively relieving professors to focus on research and discussions. Work of professors will be transformed says University of Southern California higher education expert William Tierney.