I’ve participated in a few MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) over the last few years and have typically found the experience rewarding. Online educational opportunities have really blossomed lately with the addition of some newer players in the field. Coursera is one of the older and probably best known providers, but there are a couple of notable additions, namely edX and Udacity. Some major schools, like Stanford, Johns Hopkins and Duke U are associated with many of the courses, as are many corporations like Google and Microsoft.

There are lots of courses in computer science, math, statistics and the other sciences, even engineering and medicine. And not all the courses are pushovers, either. The humanities, social sciences, business and the arts are represented as well. If you either need or want to demonstrate that you completed the course, you can usually get a verified certificate of some sort for around $50 – $100. Coursera offers “specializations” in certain topics; at Udacity you can earn what they call a “microdegree.” Most edX courses are currently stand-alone, but their catalog is impressive.

I’m about to embark on my most ambitious “semester” yet, three classes simultaneously: one math, one stats and one in data analysis. The first two are largely refreshers, but they’ll still require an effort–we’ll see if I’ve bitten off more than I’m prepared to chew.