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Well that's what happens when you are trying to do charity AND make money - it doesn't make sense. Either it is free, or it is for profit. You have to choose which.

Khan Academy is free. MIT Courses on youtube are free.

These websites that want you to sign up, only be able to view courses at certain times, etc etc. Please, just give me youtube links and pdf/slides and have a forum for discussion.

This is not hard, youtube is free, pdf/slides are very cheap to host, as is a forum.

Why does Coursera even exist, what's the differentiating factor?



edX is a nonprofit, and they also charge for certificates.

https://www.edx.org/verified-certificate

There are labor costs involved in grading assignments and "making sure that you're the one taking the class".


There are two tiers of certification at edx. The unverified certificate is free.


Learning is more than watching videos. Coursera, edX and other providers provide automatic graded exercises, discussion forums, peer-grading assessments, etc.




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