StraighterLine is a new kind of remote education company, offering online college courses in basic subjects such as math, accounting and writing at an extremely low flat rate of $99 a month.

The United Nations recently announced the launch of the world’s first tuition-free online university. Named the University of the People, the school will open up access to higher education for many individuals around the world.
The UN explains:
For hundreds of millions of people around the world higher education is no more than a dream, Shai Reshef, the founder of the University of the People, told reporters. They are constrained by finances, the lack of institutions in their region, or they are not able to leave home to study at a university for personal reasons.
Mr. Reshef said that this University opened the [...]

We’ve written a lot lately on the idea of alternative and open source education. Independent schools and learning centers are frequently being created to serve life-long learners and those who may not be able to afford the rising costs of higher education. And of course, there’s the ever widening pool of educational resources available online. Besides the sea of disparate knowledge comprising the web, there are also numerous instances of more formal offerings of educational materials, such as MIT’s open courseware.
Author John Robb, who has done extensive studies on networks, communities and international relations foresees this critical mass of freely [...]

Harvard has recently launched a new one year academic program to serve the growing number of retired professionals who aren’t ready to lead lives filled with early bird specials and afternoon golf games, but instead want to involve themselves with creating social change.
The program, called the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, is a collaboration among five of the university’s professional schools — business, law, government, education and public health. It is seen as a next stage for universities, beyond undergraduate and then graduate and professional schools.
If successful, Harvard professors say, it can serve as a model for schools at other universities, [...]