OLI offers Chinese to independent learners for $10. While there is a gradebook with graded assessments, there is no teacher or schedule. The course is completely self-paced and self-guided.
To register in the Open Learning Initiative's Chinese - Self-Paced for Independent Learners course(s), follow these instructions. Visit the Course Key registration page here (https://oli.cmu.edu/coursekey).
Enter the course key for the appropriate course:
Chinese 1 Course Key: chin1indep
Chinese 2 Course Key: chin2indep
Enter payment when prompted via credit card, debit card, or Visa/MasterCard gift card.
When returning to your course, sign in to OLI here: https://oli.cmu.edu/jcourse/webui/welcome.do
If you choose Chinese 1 and decide you would prefer Chinese 2 (or vice versa), just let us know and we can switch the enrollments. Also, let us know if you would like a refund. Email oli-help@cmu.edu or click Help from any OLI page.
OLI offers these courses to independent learners, and doesn't offer college credit or a certificate of completion. The self-guided courses are completely online and wholly contained within the online materials. OLI does not provide instructors. OLI helps with any technical questions or basic questions about how the course is organized and accessed, but OLI does not support the Chinese content. There is no set timeline, you can choose to cover the materials as quickly or slowly as suits your schedule and choose to block out or schedule your time as works for you. There are built-in practice activities on the pages and automatically graded tests at the end of each lesson (if you want to take a test over, just let us know and we will delete the test so you can take it again).
Barring any unexpected changes to the OLI platform, there is no time limit to your access to the OLI course.