A few months ago Daniel Conn was scouting the internet wondering how and where he might obtain a degree. At 26, having skipped university when he left school, he was, as he puts it, “a bit unsure of my study skills”.

By chance he discovered a website called Open Learn, an offshoot of the Open University (OU), which is in the vanguard of a new era of education. Short-circuiting tuition fees and over-priced student flats, Open Learn offers expert material, accessible via the internet, free to anyone, anywhere.

Unlike traditional “distance learning” courses, you do not have to register and pay to receive course materials. You just click and pick from a vast array of subjects — say, an introductory course on life in the Palaeozoic era to one on the meaning and value of textiles in Ghana.

Although it is not designed to deliver a degree, it is a start. “I found the material to be very engaging and reassuring,” said Conn, who tried units on IT and computing.

“I wanted to see how I would cope. I studied for about a month. I couldn’t put it down.”

He was so encouraged that he signed up for a full OU degree course, which he started this month. “A week in and I don’t regret it,” said Conn, who plans to study in the evenings and at weekends while continuing to work as an administrator at a garage in Brighton.

While Open Learn is a natural evolution for OU, what is striking is how some of the most prestigious universities in the world are moving in the same direction, making first-class educational resources available for free. This month YouTube began carrying material from 45 universities in Europe and Israel on a strand it has dedicated to education.

“YouTube EDU is a global classroom where . . . everyone can watch and engage with a range of videos that have been uploaded by some of the world’s great universities,” said a spokeswoman.

Even more far-reaching, in many users’ eyes, is the light-speed expansion of iTunes U — a sort of university in the sky hosted by the online music store. There you can find lectures by professors at Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and many others.

Among last week’s most popular downloads were lectures entitled Einstein’s ethics; your brain on jazz: neural substrates of spontaneous improvisation; and building a business: entrepreneurship and the ideal business plan.

In just a year of posting material on iTunes U, Oxford has seen well over 1m downloads of lectures or other academic works. “Podcasts that were scattered on the university’s departmental sites are now on iTunes,” said Carolyne Culver, head of strategic communications at the university. “We are getting many more downloads.”

Word is spreading fast as a glance at Twitter last Friday revealed. Tweeter drdav99 wrote: “just found out about iTunes U. this is incredible”. Another tweeter, known as bfalke, claimed: “iTunes U may be one of the most amazing tools on the internet.”

Times recommends

• ‘Obama effect’ pushes British pupils to US
• Over-subscribed colleges face budget shortfall
• End in sight for school tables based on test results