http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/mitx-education-initiative-1219.htmlThis has been in the news a while, but the 1st class is about to start in March.
6.002x (Circuits and Electronics) is an experimental on-line adaptation of MIT’s first undergraduate analog design course: 6.002. This course will run, free of charge, for students worldwide from March 5, 2012 through June 8, 2012.
Here's the signup link:
https://6002x.mitx.mit.edu/#MIT have had free courses available online for a while, but they were never done with an organized "platform" so to speak; they were just books, notes, and coursework. They also weren't even remotely accredited. So this is the 1st course actually designed from the ground up to be taught online and with some amount of accreditation.
Note, you will need some college level physics (specifically electricity and magnetism), calculus, basic DifEq, and linear algebra. If you're weak in these regards I recommend using The Khan Academy and/or the Saylor Foundation to brush up. They're gonna do some remedial difEq in the course at some point though.
The disclaimer. There really is nothing that remarkable about this class other than it's via MIT, it's on an online platform, and you get a nice certificate. There are plenty of free ways to learn this stuff online (I already cited 2), but finding free ones using techniques online schools have been using for years is tougher. Specifically this:
features interactive instruction, online laboratories and student-to-student and student-to-professor communication. allows for the individual assessment of any student’s work and allows students who demonstrate their mastery of subjects to earn certificates awarded by MITx
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