7 Best Sites for Free Online Learning
Did you know that there are websites online that let you learn for free? It’s not just any website, some of which come from reputable schools like Harvard and Stanford. Whether you need to brush up on your skills or learn something new, the internet has a lot to offer. Best of all, these are high-quality sites that provide education completely free.
Coursera is a website that offers free education that comes from various university partners. To date, the site has more than 35 million students, 150 university partners, 250 specializations, 2,700 courses, and four degrees. Besides their free courses, they also offer specialization and degrees, which you’ll need to pay to have access to. These paid courses let you earn certificates of completion to recognize that you passed the class. If you want a classroom-style environment at home, this website is the best place to start.
Udemy is an online learning site with similar concepts to Coursera, but it allows users to build custom courses from lessons. Udemy’s line of courses and mentors come from top professionals and schools. The site offers a customizable platform that provides a heavy emphasis on quality content. You can enroll in any course for free, but there are also paid content available.
EdX is a global non-profit that aims to remove the barriers of traditional education. Founded by Harvard and MIT, the site has 2,400 courses from top-ranked universities around the world. It offers fully online classes with discussion boards, teachers, exams that will make you feel as if you’re learning in a classroom. In addition to their free courses, edX offers paid courses that let you earn a verified certificate of completion.
Khan Academy is a non-profit organization whose aim is to offer free, world-class education for anyone around the world. The platform is open for learners and students, and it provides various lessons from kindergarten through college. Khan Academy focuses on classrooms like learning with topics including grammar, science, math, history, and many more. Khan Academy is backed by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, and many more, thus expect high-quality classes from this site.
Stanford Online is an excellent resource for world-class free online courses. Their courses come from Stanford’s graduate and undergraduate schools, including Stanford Business School, Stanford Law School, and Stanford Medical School. You can choose from self-paced or session-based learning. Since the site caters only one school, their topics are somewhat limited compared to Coursera and edX that host various schools from around the world. Professional certificates and advanced degrees are also available in their online platform.
MIT OpenCourseWare offers many free online courses that are exclusively available in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The site provides lectures, homework assignments, lecture notes, tests, and many other materials that are also available from the actual courses at MIT. MIT has a lot of these lectures available for you if you’re looking to learn about science, computer, and engineering topics.
TedED is an excellent site for general online learning. The site has a global network of more than 250,000 teachers that serve millions of students around the world. What is unique about this site is that it offers original animated videos in their lectures and allows teachers to create interactive lessons.
