+ How can all of this educational content be free?
Have you ever thought about what Goodwill does with the proceeds from their retail stores? When you donate your gently-used items to Goodwill, you are supporting programs that provide education, employment, and life enrichment opportunities for people in your community.
GCFLearnFree.org® is one such program of Goodwill Industries of Eastern NC, Inc., based in Eastern North Carolina. The funds raised through the Goodwill Stores make GCFLearnFree.org possible, not only for the residents of Eastern North Carolina, but for people all around the world!
+ Where is GCFLearnFree.org?
Although we serve people in almost every country around the world, we’re based in Downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.
+ Why does the sign on the front of the building say "GCF Global Learning"?
From 1992 – 2006, we offered classes at our physical location under the name GCF Global Learning. Over time, we realized that if we really wanted to help as many people as possible, we should provide our free educational content online. We chose the name "GCFLearnFree.org" for our website name because we felt that summed us up best: Learning for Free! But we continue to work in the GCF Global Learning building, the think tank out of which our hard working staff members create and produce the quality learning content you know today as GCFLearnFree.org.
+ Why don’t you offer classes at your physical location?
Originally we did. We served over 10,000 people from 1992 – 2006 at the GCF Global Learning building. We discovered that other organizations were using our tutorials and lessons in developing curriculum for the people they served. To better assist these organizations and their learners, we decided to focus on creating educational content that would be more easily accessible online.
We also realized that when we offer our content online via self-paced tutorials and instructor-led classes, we can reach more people. Since offering our educational content online, we have served over TWO MILLION learners around the world.
Although we no longer offer classes at our physical location, it is our hope that you will find access to a computer at home, at work, at a public library, or a community center in order to continue to benefit from our free educational content.
+ How do you choose what topics you cover?
You talk. We listen. The topics and lessons we create are based on feedback from you, our learners. If there are a significant number of requests for a certain subject, we make every effort to create tutorials and lessons for it!
+ Why don’t you offer more advanced tutorials?
We do all we can to keep up with the pace of technology and make sure we give you the latest, most up-to-date information. However, at the end of the day, we have a small staff and we’re simply limited in the amount of content we can create.
Our focus is to create quality, innovative educational content. By only covering beginner and intermediate levels, we feel we are able to reach and serve more people. We hope that you are provided with a strong foundation within the topics we cover and are empowered to take the next steps in your educational journey.
+ Why do you only offer instructor-supported classes?
Our online, instructor-led classes are accredited by the International Association of Continuing Education and Technology (IACET). It is through the rigorous requirements of this accrediting organization that we are able to offer Continuing Education Units (CEUs) through our Microsoft Office classes.
We are pleased that we are able to offer CEUs to thousands of learners through our online classes but it is important to us that the certificates we offer are meaningful. Due to the structure of the online classes, which are administered and scored by instructors, learners are able to demonstrate in a measurable way that they gained useful knowledge from our classes.
The structure of our self-paced tutorials do not allow us to measure knowledge gained, although in no way does this mean that our tutorials do not provide an educational benefit. The quality of the information is the same and we hope that you will still find it useful and applicable in your life at home and at work.
+ How can I ask a question or make a suggestion to GCFLearnFree.org?
The best way is to find us online.
Subscribe to our blog and get even more educational content. We share tips and helpful hints on technology, career, and more that you just can’t find on the GCFLearnFree.org site.
Subscribe to us on YouTube and never miss a video tutorial. Many of our videos are uploaded to our YouTube Channel in handy little playlists – with one click, you can watch an entire lesson from beginning to end.
Follow us on Twitter and find out the latest news, from new topics and lessons we’re launching to articles and information we think you may find relevant.
Like us on Facebook and join in on the lively discussion we have there. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, that’s a great place to get an answer for it.
+ Who are the little paper doll figures on your site?
If you've noticed the little paper dolls we have at various places on our website then you're very observant! These figures actually have names: the girl is Good and the boy is Will. Get it? Good and Will?
These paper dolls are actually the mascots for our organization, Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina, Inc.®. We liked them so much, we wanted to use them on the GCFLearnFree.org website to help us spread the word about all the online learning opportunities we offer here for completely FREE!
+ Other
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