Bill Nye gave a very profound presentation recently with many interesting stories, ideas and advice on how we all can “change the world.” One idea that I find significant for us, as students in particular, is the availability of online free education resources, which an audience member brought up by asking Nye his thoughts on their importance.

Personally, I have explored some of the educational resources available for free online, and I can confidently say that they have been a substantial help to my education. For example, one of the most useful sites I have experienced is also the most popular one, the Khan Academy. Started by Salman Khan as a series of YouTube videos that he made to tutor his cousin remotely, the site now has over 3,400 videos, almost all of them created by Khan himself. There is a broad range of topics covered, though the math and science topics are the most comprehensive, including ways to test your understanding by answering questions in these areas. Khan Academy also has a pretty sweet achievements system that has motivated me many times to continue learning about things that I normally would not pursue so ambitiously.

Nye himself is involved with the free educational site Sophia.org, which focuses on short videos that explain particular concepts. For many topics, Sophia has multiple videos created by different people. The overall purpose of Sophia is to be a place where many people contribute content, similar to the way Wikipedia functions. The site also pursues academic professionals and asks them to review and verify the submitted content.

There are many other places to learn for free online, including sites supported by universities. MIT was the first institution to offer educational resources for free online over a decade ago. Today, they have over 2,000 courses available, using materials taken directly from the classroom.

Another university-supported site, Coursera.org, was founded by two professors from Stanford University and now includes courses from 33 institutions such as Princeton, Johns Hopkins and Colombia, as well as various universities around the world including the University of Tokyo, the University of Edinburgh and the Indian Institute of Technology.

When I have difficulty understanding something in a class, I can usually find clarity by using free education websites, particularly by watching videos made to explain these topics. Knowing that these resources are available has made it much easier to do well in classes that are taught by teachers that do not present material in ways that I find very helpful. Even when I feel I have a firm grasp on a certain concept, checking out an explanation on one of these sites almost always gives me a better intuition regarding it. I have directed other students to use these tools, and when they do, it usually helps give them a better attitude regarding the class with which they were having trouble.

Teachers themselves also look to these resources when they wish to improve the way they teach students. Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera, said, “I’m watching other professors’ lectures as well and learning from them… [I’m] watching their teaching, thereby learning to improve pedagogy as well.” The Khan Academy has also integrated its site into a few classrooms in the United States, with impressive results that Khan summarized in a TEDtalks exhibition presented by Bill Gates.

As a college student, I greatly appreciate the effort that is being made to make this material freely available. But even more significant is what this effort is doing for nonstudents. Sites such as these are giving people everywhere access to resources that historically have been only available to a very small percentage of the population. Education should not be a privilege reserved for a select few, but something for which we should all strive to share with each other.