Before modern computing, individuals learned about the world via newspapers, most of which were started by corrupt oil barons in order to give their competitors false tips about the moon’s oil reserves. Take one small step into current technology with today's Groupon: for $74, you get a four-week course on developing apps for iPhone and iPads from Udemy (a $250 value). A system running Mac OSX is required to develop for the iOS platform.

Udemy flips the world of higher education on its mortarboard by enabling anyone to disseminate knowledge or take a course online. Lend an earbud to Bess Ho—guest lecturer at the Stanford School of Engineering, developer for the Apple iPhone App Store, and instructor of the Learn to Develop an iPhone or iPad App in 4 Weeks course—as she covers topics such as Objective-C, adding icons and launch images, and animating objects during 12 step-by-step chapters. Since they’re all online, the courses are digestible at each student's individual pace, unlike trigonometry, which all humans understand at the exact same pace. Each step toward app aptitude is helped along by tools provided directly on the site, including video lectures for visual demonstration, source codes and exercises for each section, and a discussion board for asking Ms. Ho questions directly.