Free Photography Courses
Free photography courses are available from the universities listed below. Each course provides downloadable resources for students to learn about the field of photography.
MIT
MIT offers two online photography courses through its OpenCourseWare platform. The First Year course encourages students to learn how to use photographs as a storytelling tool. The course is taught by Keith McCluskey, Senior Director of Online Strategy for Harvard Law School, who formerly worked as a Faculty Liaison for MIT OpenCourseWare to the School of Architecture and Planning. Students are offered a bibliography of the books used in the course, on topics including light, detail and poetics.
The Photography and Related Media course is a lecture-based course with class components including oral presentations and class projects. Students will be given critiques based on their work.
Open University
This photography course focuses on family photos. Students learn how to interpret pictorial sources. The course is offered in sections online, with topics like camera culture and portraits in the open air. It can be accessed in its entirety in an eBook format.
Free Online Photography Courses At a Glance
| Course & School | Program Level | Format | Assignments | Quizzes & Exams | Downloadable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stories Without Words: Photographing the First Year course from MIT | Undergraduate | Text | Yes | No | Yes |
| Photography and Related Media course from MIT | Graduate | Projects and examples | No | No | Yes |
| Picturing the Family course from Open University | Undergraduate/introductory | Text and images | No | No | Yes |
