Harvard University Online Learning Programs

Created in 1636, Harvard University is the oldest postsecondary school in the United States.  The university is comprised of twelve degree granting schools.  Headquartered in Massachusetts, Harvard University online and its offline programs enroll more than 20,000 degree seeking university students.  Harvard University online courses are offered through the university’s extension school.

Video, Internet tools like email and audio are used to deliver professor lectures to you and other students taking courses associated with Harvard University online programs.  By using Internet tools you can stay in contact with your professors and classmates.  Specific types of schools and disciplines distance learning courses are offered for students enrolled in Harvard University include:

• Harvard Graduate School of Education
• Harvard Business Review
• Harvard Kennedy School, Executive Education
• Harvard Medical School (administered through the Department of Continuing Education)
• Harvard School of Public Health

Enhancing Your Education by Taking Interactive Harvard University Courses

In addition to the above schools and departments, online programs, like seminars and lectures, are offered through Harvard University’s Digital Harvard program.  Some of these courses are free of charge and can be completed at your own pace.  You might need Flash and a Music Player (MP) to access the online courses.  To enhance your learning, a syllabus and notes accompany some of the training programs.  Types of seminars and lectures you can take at Harvard University are:

• Computer Science: Understanding Computers and the Internet (offered through the Harvard Extension School, this course uses taped lectures to review computer components as well as how the Internet impacts your privacy and the health of your computer)
• Berkman Center for Internet and Society (research program that takes a look at the cyberspace, including ways to further develop cyberspace)
• Brigham and Women’s Hospital Live Surgery Webcasts (designed for medical professionals like nurses and physicians, shows webcasts of medical procedures performed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; patients can also watch and learn from the webcasts)
• WIDE World (online course teaching educators ways to assess understanding and different student intelligence levels)
• Continuing Medical Education (covers topics such as aging, behavioral health, lifestyle medicine, neurology, oncology, pathology, psychiatry, cardiovascular medicine and emergency medicine)
• Chandra X-Ray Observatory (uses interactive tools to explore the cosmos)

After your registration application to take one or more online programs is approved, you’ll need a login and password to access some Harvard University online courses.  Nearly 40 of the school’s online courses are taught by faculty members via lectures.  Other online courses are taught by professors who work at other colleges and universities.

Additionally and although Harvard University online degrees generally combine classroom and distance learning courses, several courses at the postsecondary school have one or more online components.  Not only does the school use its Harvard Business Review courses to help students gain a more balanced education through programs like its Harvard University online MBA (Master’s of Business Administration), the school also makes its Harvard Business Review courses available to working adults through various employer based online learning and development initiatives.  Real life business scenarios, challenges and procedures are examined during the self-paced courses.  To enhance learning at the end of many of the online courses is an interactive question and answer session that you must pass before you’re credited with completing the course.