Resources
Adult Education
If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. – Benjamin Franklin
Going back to school? Increasing numbers of adults are headed back to the classroom. Perhaps it’s time to earn the equivalent of a high school diploma. Maybe you are helping someone attain functional literacy or helping someone new to our country with their language skills. You may be interested in continuing education to stay competitive in your occupation or you may be thinking of a new field.
Whether it’s an advanced degree or personal interest as a lifelong learner, there are many choices at our excellent local institutions. Plus, now you can bring the classroom to your desktop and take courses online.
GED/ABLE/ESOL
Learning and Test Preparation:
Seeds of Literacy (GED)
Parma City Schools
GED Testing Centers:
Colleges/Universities/Technical Schools
Information on college preparedness and selection, admissions and testing, scholarships and financial aid:
College Board – a wealth of information about planning, choosing, testing, admissions, financing…
Ohio College Tech Prep – programs that offer college-equivalent courses in high schools to qualified students who are interested in technical careers.
Ohio Department of Education Career-Tech – adult education information.
College Now Greater Cleveland – your best local advisory service
Federal Student Aid- provides in-depth information on federal student aid programs, applying for financial aid, and repaying student loans.
FAFSA on the Web – the official site of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSASM).
Commercial services for scholarship and financial aid information:
Best Colleges Online - College guide and assistance in how to get financial aid
College Reality Check – produced by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Get facts and figures to weigh in making your decisions about college. Often overlooked factors include graduation rates, net price, monthly cost to pay off student loans, potential earning power.
Local colleges, universities and technical schools:
- Baldwin Wallace University
- Case Western Reserve University
- Cleveland Institute of Art
- Chancellor University (closing – enrolled students transfer to Alliant Int’l Univ.)
- Cleveland Institute of Music
- Cleveland State University
- Cuyahoga Community College
- DeVry University Seven Hills (Cleveland South) Campus
- Hiram College
- John Carroll University
- Kaplan Career Institute
- Kent State University
- Lincoln College of Technology
- Lakeland Community College
- Lorain County Community College
- Notre Dame College of Ohio
- Oberlin College
- Ohio Business College
- Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine
- Ohio Technical College
- Polaris Career Center
- Remington College
- South University, Cleveland, Ohio Campus
- University of Akron
- Ursuline College
- Vatterott Education Center
- Virginia Marti College of Fashion and Design
Distance/Online Learning
Distance Education and Training Council – search for programs
Distance Learning Schools - information about distance learning programs
Learning Express Library - a free service of Libraries Connect Ohio, provides online courses to improve learning skills, GED and college prep, TOEFL and citizenship, as well as practice for occupational testing. Practice tests, exercises, skill-building courses, eBooks, and information are interactive and conducted at your own pace.
Lifelong Learning
Open-Courseware - Many colleges are publishing course material online. You cannot earn credit or interact with the professor or fellow students but you can “audit” coursework posted by such prestigious institutions as MIT, University of California at Irvine, Johns Hopkins University, University of Notre Dame, Michigan State University and Harvard Law School. You may find lecture notes or maybe even audio podcasts or video webcasts from these great schools and others around the world.
Coursera – Free online classes from 16 top universities. Even if you miss a course start date, you can view the videos of the lectures. Those who do all of the assignments and complete the course will get certificates signed by the instructor. There are discussion forums for students to ask questions and receive answers (though not in real time).
edX – a new MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) collaboration of Harvard, MIT and the University of California, Berkley (so far). Free. The first course offered in the spring was “Circuits and Electronics” and over 154,000 signed up and 7,157 ultimately passed. Students that complete a course may receive a certificate of completion but it will not be under the names of the universities. Fall 2012 will see 7 courses offered including Artificial Intelligence (Berkley), Health in Numbers (Harvard) and Solid State Chemistry (MIT). A primary reason the universities are offering open online courses is that they want to discover how students can learn utilizing technology.
Elderhostel/Road Scholar - Great programs for seniors!
