I’m almost embarassed to admit that I graduated high school twenty years ago. Where did the time go? Seriously!

Like most, I had all these great ideas and grandiose plans. Go to college, get a degree, win a pulitzer, become Lois Lane. I wasn’t thinking small or anything, right?

Then life intervened. Age old story – I met a boy. After getting married, I tried to continue school but the USMC kept moving us around. Then kids came. Now I’m sitting here with no degree and kids on the threshold of starting their own college plans.

I never meant to stop schooling a couple credits shy of an Associates Degree let alone before attaining my Bachelor’s. I always planned to go back to finish.

Can I just admit how scary that sounds? Studying…testing…possibly failing…

Help!

Lucky for us SAHM/Housewife types, it’s no longer 1993. Many schools offer online options which helps me to not need to travel further than my computer. (It also allows me to stay in my PJ’s because let’s face it, we all wanted to do that for 8:00 AM Spanish Class, right? I’m a total fan of anything I can do in my PJ’s.)

Still, between the “out of the groove” feel and the hefty price tag, I’m still scared. Chicken!

I’ve super loved Open Courseware, allowing me to learn things for free.  That morphed into MOOC’s. What’s MOOC mean?

MOOC: Massive Open Online Course

Uh… what?

In other words, you take a class with tens of thousands other people. You use your computer and you get stay in your jammies. (Woot!) However, there’s actual assignments, quizzes, deadlines, and the like. It’s just like going to that 8:00 AM Spanish Class. Only you don’t have to be anywhere at 8:00 AM and no one cares if you get dressed.

The downfall: most schools don’t give you credit. Darn.

The upside: it helps to get you back into the swing of things – for zero cost. Some classes will give you a statement of accomplishment you can include in your portfolio and list on your resume or CV. I really enjoy Coursera and Saylor. In fact, i am signed up for new MOOC’s starting up this week with Coursera!

I’ll admit, life went a little crazy and some of my MOOC’s over the last few months fell by the wayside. Sadness. The busy summer certainly didn’t help. Too much travel interfered with my deadlines.

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