As the economy tightens, many of us are looking for ways to be more frugal. But often minding our pennies equals some type of sacrifice. It may be quality; it might be service or some other desirable feature. But does it need to be that way? I ask, “Why can’t I have my cake and eat it too?”Are you like me? Do you want more for less! Of course you do. So from time-to-time, I will be writing “More for Less” postings on the Knowledge Shark’s Blog.

First up is eLearning for the professional, the student and the scholar. There are various ways to get no cost to low cost online courses from Advanced Algorithms (MIT) to Zoological Medicine (Tufts). Many include the same materials as the regular courses.

Something for Nothing

One of the best no cost eLearning solutions is OpenCourseWare. It’s a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials that are organized as courses. The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of more than 200 higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world.

Professionals and students all over the world have come to enjoy OpenCourseWare. In fact, 96 percent of visitors to OpenCourseWare sites say they would recommend it to someone else. You can search for courses throughout the system at the OpenCourseWare Consortium’s website.

Honestly, I have found the quality between some OpenCourseWare participants’ materials to be great. Some courses are on the money, other lack substance. But most of the major universities’ OpenCourseWare sites usually have some gems in their curriculum. Two of the major stand outs in the crowd in my book are MIT’s and HP’s sites.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology OpenCourseWare Site

If you are looking for a wide range of free courses offered online, MIT is a great first choice. More than 1,800 free courses are offered through the MIT OpenCourseWare project. You can find material on just about any topic of interest.

The best part of this site is the MIT Sloan School of Management section. It offers 150 valuable courses. The courses are in text, audio and video formats and translated into a number of different languages.

HP Learning Center

Want to learn Microsoft Office 2007? Or maybe you’ve upgraded your home computer to Vista and need some help. Then the HP Learning Center is the place to go. Besides courses and how-to videos on Microsoft products, you’ll find classes on other popular computer software and topics.

These are just a couple of ways to tap free learning. In other posts, we’ll look at podcast and the largely untapped world of educational/industrial boards.

Who does Accenture, Capgemini, Booz Allen Hamilton and over three thousand of the best companies in the world turn to when they need eLearning? Why SkillSoft, of course. And maybe you can too.

But first – who is SkillSoft? SkillSoft is a leading provider of on-demand eLearning and performance support solutions for global enterprises, government, education and small- to medium-size businesses. They have a huge catalogue of eLearning courses and simulations on just about every business subject imaginable. One catch, their top-quality materials don’t come cheap. Or do they?

What if I told you, you might be able to access to over 1,100 business courses plus another 2,500 IT courses that retail for $5K+ per year? What would you pay for all that career advancing, client helping knowledge? $2,000… $1,000… $500

What if I told you, you may be able to get all that and more for just $99 per year! I hear you out there. You’re saying “sounds pretty good, please go on.” So, I will.

The ACM, the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, offers its member over 3,600 SkillSoft courses. To become an ACM member, you have to have a Bachelor’s Degree (in any subject) and two years of employment in the IT field.

I can hear you now too. And you really shouldn’t use that type of language. Let me go on and put some light on these requirements.

There’s no way around the educational requirement, but the ACM views employment in the IT field a bit loosely. Have you  been on internal focus groups or committees for software or hardware selection? Are you an IT influencer, reviewer, budget approver, or the like? Well, if you’ve done any of these tasks for at least two years at any point during your career, you should have no problem qualifying for an ACM membership and all those great SkillSoft courses.

Learn about all the benefits ACM members enjoy and join up on their Membership Page. Just for the record, you can join online and get access to the material in about 24 hours, but the online membership questionnaire is a bit complex with many technical questions. My suggestion is to use their PDF Membership Form. It’s short and simple.

The Warp-up

Well that’s all I have time for now. I encourage all of you to post comments, send feedback and share your favorite ways to learn for little or no expense.