wikiHow University

If you have ever wanted to improve your writing by taking a formal writing class and participating in a workshop, but not had enough capital for such ventures, wikiHow University is for you.  Some have most likely heard of wikiHow, the free, editable how-to guide in many languages.  It has over 10.4 million readers who visit the site more than 13.6 million times per month, and has (at the time of this writing) 36,361 articles, from How to Get Into an Ivy League School to How to Make Salmon Sushi With Mango Meat.  Considering it was started so recently (it was launched Febuary 15, 2005), it has shown rapid growth.  Unlike Wikipedia, another wiki-project, wikiHow is for-profit and shows Google Adsense ads to users who are not logged in.  Since wikiHow has become more and more profitable, it has started to pay for more services for its users, such as free flights to certain meetings.  Thus, wikiHow has started to offer a free 6-week writing class taught by the Gotham Writer's Workshop of New York.  Tuition is completely covered by wikiHow, and the class is held fully online.  The class of 16 students will be instructed by an experienced writer, and the class will contain lessons, discussions, and writing assignments wherein students and the teacher give feedback and share ideas.  Material is available online 24 hours a day for a whole week per lesson, so it matters not whether you are in Mongolia or Tierra del Fuego.  It is mainly geared towards writing how-to guides, but will cause improvement in general writing quality as well.  It is also accredited via the International Association of Continuing Education and Training, and graduates receive 1.8 CEU's and a Certificate of Completion.  Unfortunately, high demand for classes results in the fact that most cannot go.  In the event that many sign up, the most active editors are selected.  However, if the first class works out well (and most likely it will), they will continue with more sessions and perhaps different classes.  So if you sign up for an account at wikiHow and become a regular editor, soon you will get to take the class.  Editing wikiHow isn't hard and can even be rather enjoyable if you like writing.  It's rare that such educational opportunities are offered for free, for anyone.  If there were more programs like this, society would be improved as people are liberated by education.

Note:  This author is a wikiHow editor himself, with the username Beowulf195.  At the time of this post, he has written two articles: How to Open Up an iPod, and How to Avoid Being an Internet Troll.