The Internet nowadays has so much to offer, and to anyone. With access to endless resources for education and personal development, everyone can find what they need by doing some simple typing on their keyboard. The best part about educational online content is that it often comes for free.
Top Online Learning Sites for Taking Online Courses
On the sites below, you get free education at your fingertips.
1] Coursera
Coursera has been one of the highest-rated MOOC websites for quite a while now. This is a site that partners with some of the best organizations, institutions, and universities on a worldwide level. As a result, you can get access to all kinds of academic programs, free or affordable.
On Coursera, you can learn in a very friendly and diverse, classroom-like environment where you’ll be given the task to write papers like an essay, study from videos and written lectures, test other students on the platform, and get an actual certificate for your work.
2] Khan Academy
On the Khan Academy site, you can find some of the best courses on a variety of subjects. All of their lectures are designed for continuous development, meaning that you can watch a short lecture each day and gradually build on your knowledge on the topic you’ve chosen.
Khan Academy is different from Coursera in the sense that it offers lectures in video and written form, but lacks any classroom-like activities such as exams, a custom assignment, or grading of any kind.
3] EdX
EdX is another highly popular site that offers help with mastering a variety of topics, subjects, and fields. It has big online courses that combine, teachers, students, quizzes, tests, and discussion boards. The most common fields in which you can find courses here are the sciences, math, and engineering.
4] Udemy
With a similar concept as that of EdX and Coursera, Udemy also has free courses created and let by amazing schools and even more amazing professors. The website also allows its users to create their own, custom courses for the lessons. In addition to the free version, Udemy also has a paid version where you get access to more content.
5] Stanford Online
Would you like to check out some course offering from the popular Stanford University? This is now available for free with the Stanford Online platform that combines session-based and self-paced courses.
Now, most of the courses by Stanford are available via different hosts and some of them will require iTunes, but still, you can access all of them from your browser.
6] Open Culture Online Courses
This online course platform is among the most versatile ones in terms of topics and subjects. The page has more than a thousand different lectures, podcasts, and videos accumulated from different universities from around the world. Here you can find materials that can only be access on the private websites of the universities.
It’s a very simple-to-use, fast interface where students can access courses in their areas of study without having to scour the web for universities that have posted free lessons.
7] TED-Ed
Everyone today has heard of TED – the most popular platform for inspirational and educational videos. Well, as an addition to the TED website, there’s also an educational site for those who want to enjoy access to only educational videos.
According to Peter Simpson, an expert of a research paper writing service: ‘TED-Ed is by far the most varied and inspiring educational platform today. You can find anything you need on a single website, which is something you can hardly say about the Web.’’
8] The Open University of iTunes U
iTunesU is a beautiful and very convenient spot to get some online education even on the go. It integrates with any Apple device such as apple desktops, iPhones, iPads, and even iPod touch. All you have to do to access the free courses offered by iTunesU is to download an app.
If you choose to use the app, you can select your course based on varied categories such as topic or genre. There’s a wide mix of free videos, content and podcasts, as well as some paid content. However, the limitations of this online course platform are that it isn’t available on Windows, Google, and Android.
9] Alison
Alison is the final education site on this list and unlike most in this list, it offers actual certifications in selected areas. The courses on the website are mainly in technology, health, business, and language learning.
Free education might have been hard to find in the past but today, all you need to develop yourself personally and gain some knowledge is a device and an internet connection.
With the free websites in this list, you can build on your knowledge in any area or field you wish to study. These sites will provide you with useful and creative videos, content, and other types of educational content.
