Open courseware is an emerging education trend that features all kinds of benefits to students and professionals. Even not-for-credit courses offer opportunities for learning, allowing students to learn about a particular subject before enrolling in an expensive campus-based program and giving mid-career professionals the opportunity to review or brush up on skills they need to master to remain competitive in their industry.

In Asia, the competition is tough for university students, entrepreneurs and professionals who want to stand out on a global scale in areas like media, technology, business, finance, and entertainment. Here, we’ll take a look at some of the top Asian universities that offer open courseware and the opportunity for individuals to retain their competitive edge in such a large market.

Kyoto University is one of the premier universities that offer open courses

1. Kyoto University: Kyoto University is one of the premier, global-minded universities that offers a substantial collection of open courses in engineering, agriculture, education, law, science, medicine, economics and many graduate studies. Course materials can be accessed in Japanese and English.
2. Seoul Tech: The Seoul National University of Technology has been called “the only industrial-academic alliance-centered university in Seoul: by the Open Courseware Consortium, and its website is published in Korean and English.
3. University of Tokyo: Watch video lectures from UT in subjects like economics, law, math, science, sociology, globalization, medicine, engineering, education, and more.
4. EduNet Vietnam: EduNet Vietnam is an open education resource that is published in Vietnamese that features forums, blogs and wikis.
5. Tokyo Tech: Tokyo Tech currently offers education materials for over 50 courses at the graduate level. Subjects include engineering, technology, innovation management, biotechnology, and more.
6. Osaka University: Find course materials actually used in traditional Osaka University classes in fields like dentistry, law, medicine, human sciences, economics, and more.
7. INHA University: The INHA Global Network is published in Chinese, Korean and English and has many valuable resources for studying Korean and learning about Korean culture.
8. China Open Resources for Education: This website actually connects to MIT’s open courseware site, but offers lots of archived courses in the Chinese language.
9. Pusan National University: This Korean university connects to learning resources and research institute links in nanotechnology.

This post was contributed by Jill Gordon, who writes about the best online degree. She welcomes your feedback at Jill.Gordon25@yahoo.com

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