I hesitate to call this collection a list of homeschooling resources. Firstly, most of the resources listed are higher level courses - suitable for advanced high school students and students with deep interest in a certain field of study. I have browsed the internet in the past few weeks and determined which websites and programs are the most useful for students wanting to have something of a classroom experience and yet learn on their own. As a result, I've come up with this list of learning locations. It is important to note, however, that the complete OCW course often requires a textbook. I suggest extremely cheap used books or the library, through which you can often request books that are not readily available.
Some of the sites listed are OpenCourseWare. If you're not aware, OpenCourseWare (OCW) is the posting of classes - often complete with lectures, assignments, and syllabi - from universities for free, public use. Some OCW offers only lectures. Although lectures are invaluable, I preferred to include in this list only OCW that offers a more complete learning experience.
BYU Independent Study - Online Courses
The BYU online independent study program offers many types of courses. They offer high school courses for as low as $124. They also offer free online courses. Most importantly, however, they have a few OCW courses. Although the selection is extremely limited (Earth Science, World Geography, and Public Speaking were some of the better options), the courses appear excellent.
Free Online Course Materials | MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT offers the most extensive collection of OCW I have found. They have almost 1900 courses. They also have resources for high school students (including which resources are best to use when self-studying certain APs) and point out which courses are appropriate for the introductory level. If you're not a math and science student, don't worry - MIT also has extensive offerings in the social sciences and the humanities. Some courses are more complete than others, in terms of the amount of classroom-style supplementary material available.
Language Learning with Livemocha | Learn a Language Online - Free!
Livemocha is a social networking site that connects native speakers to language learners. They offer courses in more than thirty languages. The site has excellent lessons of its own, and with textbook supplements, is priceless because of the connection it provides to native speakers. Usually, a student of Livemocha shares his or her own language in return for help with the language he or she is trying to learn. For example, this would be a great supplement to MIT's Chinese language OCW class.
Online Video Lectures and Course Materials — Open Yale Courses
The Yale OCW site offers extremely complete classroom-style courses. The courses take you through class session by class session, including lectures, readings, and assignments. The selection of courses is not particularly large. However, the depth of the courses is notable.
Please add any other (free or very cheap) sites and programs which you find useful for students wanting to learn at an advanced level on their own.
