With rising academic fees and people's busy schedules, more and more people are shifting toward online learning programs, many of which are being offered for free.

 

　　CRI's Li Dong has more.

 

　　Mythology may be the study of age-old cultures, but this classroom is anything but ancient.

 

　　Around 54,000 students around the world are currently taking this course in Greek and Roman mythology. In the studio, there's a camera, recording equipment, computers and technical staff to help Struck, the instructor, to record lectures and conduct live question and answer sessions with students.

 

　　The internet-based courses are known as massive, open, online classes or MOOC for short. People around the world are signing up for similar classes in their millions.

 

　　MOOCs are barely a year old, but they caught on quickly because they're generally free and save time for people hoping to learn a new subject. Students can go through the material when they have time, and there are online class chat message boards for student discussions.

 

　　In the Netherlands, one of MOOCs mythology students Fausia Abdoel says online courses make things easier than they would be in the classroom.

 

　　"It's already an online course. People are behind a computer, and they are talking to each other way more easily I have noticed than people do in, during lectures."

 

　　But as students don't earn academic credits through MOOC classes and aren't even considered official attendees at the academic institutions, the reason people enroll are often varied.

 

　　Struck, the instructor of this course admits that even though he misses the personal interaction of traditional teaching, the benefit is that a greater number of people are able to learn something new.

 

　　"What we're here to do as academics is to find out new knowledge and to spread it abroad as widely as we possibly can."

 

　　While MOOCs may not be the best form of education, for students who just want well-taught basic courses online learning certainly fits the bill. Having access to prestigious professors without the $50,000 (USD) price tag is changing what it means to get an education.

 

　　Currently, China's Peking University has started cooperation with MOOC since May this year, becoming the first Asian University on this open class platform.

 

　　Ensuring that where ever you are in the world, a decent education isn't too far away.

 

　　For CRI, I am Li Dong.