Through the BYU Department of Independent Study, twenty-six, non-credit, family history courses are now available for free.

Anyone at anytime can take these online courses from any computer with internet access.

"Technology has made it possible for us to offer free courses.  Our free courses are our regular courses, but we can use the technology to offer those free to an audience that is not requiring credit," said Dwight Laws, Director of Independent Study.

"Last year the department had three family history courses for free, and had 30,000 people finish at least the first lesson. We have no idea what to expect this year where we have many more free courses," mentioned Laws.

The courses cover topics ranging from how to get started to include French, German, Scandinavian and Huguenot research. Each research course is taught by a well-known, accredited genealogist. 

All course instructional materials are available free online.

There is no time frame required to complete the course.  A student could conceivably finish the course in less than twenty-four hours due to a feature called Speedback. Speedback assignments submitted on the course website receive instant feedback.

A person does not need to register for a free course.  Anyone can go to the department website at <elearn.byu.edu> and click on Special Offers to access the free courses.