The world of learning is changing.  In recent years, top schools like Stanford, U Penn, U Washington, Caltech, and many others have been hosting classes online for FREE.  Yup, for free, nada.

What would lead institutions to do something so reckless?  Why give away the cookies?  In many instances, it is a good-will gesture.  But it does not hurt to also have the reputation to be first in global learning!

But the real amazing result is that thousands are taking the courses.  In a recent Stanford class on artificial intelligence, 160 thousands students enrolled for the course.  Yes, that’s right!  I’m taking an online course right now in the “History of the World Since 1300” that has 70,000 students.  This course is offered by Princeton.

So how do you find these classes?  Increasingly schools are developing portals in conjunction with each other.  Two of the most popular are coursera.org and udacity.com.  Both are easy to navigate and it is a piece of cake to register.

But remember, there are no grades here.  This is not the place to gain diplomas.  It is the place to go simply to learn.  But apparently thousands around the world like that idea!

So, now I turn a small corner.  I’m envisioning the day when similar classes will be offered from the best evangelical seminaries in the world.  Imagine taking an overview of the Old Testament from professor Bruce Waltke from Reformed Seminary,  or a tour of the Gospels with Craig Blomberg from Denver Seminary.

This kind of learning environment could become a vital element of education for the local church.  I do not believe it will ever replace live teaching and face-to-face learning.  Yet it could be a fantastic tool to augment ongoing discipleship.

This is an exciting new world.  I encourage my friends to take one of these classes at Coursera or Udacity.  Oh, and don’t forget the online school called Khan Academy that is also a leader in this emerging area.  Khan was recently given $1.5 million from the Gates Foundation to expand the model!