Getting educated couldn’t be easier, all you need first and foremost is an internet connection and the ambition to upskill and broaden your educational repertoire. Whether your budget is big or completely non-existent, there are plenty of online course options out there ranging in topics, teaching delivery, personalisation, format and prices (many of which are completely free), to suit your every need.
From Fashion Courses to Chemical Engineering Vocations, the following are the top-rated 11 sites that offer FREE, high-quality, online learning.
Coursera
Participating with hundreds of top-tier universities and institutions, Coursera provides excellent high-quality learning from first-rated companies around the world, such as Imperial College London and Yale University. Support and teaching delivery provided by industry leaders and top professors, you can achieve a qualified certificate or academic degree in a broad range of fields.
edX
Founded by Harvard and MIT and affiliated with hundreds of world-renowned academic institutions, edX is dedicated to transforming traditional learning by removing the challenges of price and access. Providing online education in a huge plethora of different fields you can become a novice in a huge variety of subjects and professions at a very attractive price.
Khan Academy
As a non-profit, completely free organisation, Khan Academy provides digital online learning to people of all ages and levels of education. It is an extremely user-friendly institution which provides free education in an abundance of different ways, whether you’re looking for an hour-long introduction into a new subject or need resources to help the kids revise for early exams. Khan Academy’s Unique Selling Point is that they can provide education for all, short or long courses for the young or old.
Udemy
Udemy’s free courses are of the upmost quality and provided by some of the world’s best-known academic businesses. Furthermore, they also offer a free customisable tool that allows users to access individual units and lessons of different courses to build their own personalised platform of learning. With a heavy focus on only the best quality of teaching and learning, Udemy allows you to focus on the core subjects you are most interested in and disregard the less relevant topics you may not need.
iTunesU Free Courses
apps.apple.com/au/app/itunes-u/id490217893
iTunesU Free Courses takes it one step further in accessibility and convenience, integrating seamlessly with all your Apple devices, you can access online education, courses and vocations free on any app-ready device including your mobile phone. Learning comes in the form of high-quality, five-star podcasts and videos in a huge range of genres and topics. Desktop users can also access these materials via the iTunes Store, however it does not integrate with Android, Google or Windows devices.
MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare is an enterprise of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to virtually issue and distribute all of its educational materials, units, lessons, data and information from the huge range of all its undergraduate and graduate level subject courses online. A fantastic insight into their learning resources, with world-leading teachers and materials completely free of charge.
Stanford Online
Similarly, Stanford Online is an initiative of Stanford University, offering virtual learning from a network of industry leaders, world-class professors and other online learners from a vast range of courses and subjects. Upskill for free and at your own pace with resources provided from one of America’s first-rate institutions.
Codecademy
If coding is your thing, then look no further. Codeacademy is 100% specifically dedicated to educating coding students, as one of the best institutions to learn coding in the world for all abilities wanting to upskill; from programming fundamentals to advanced-level training. As well as this, Codeacademy includes a live practice feature window, meaning you can practice coding whilst still viewing the educational lesson material, all for free with extended version memberships purchasable.
ICT IITR
Ranked amongst the most outstanding technological institutions across the globe, the Electronics and ICT Academy of the Indian Institute of Technology – Roorkee (ICT IITR) is considered with the upmost respect and recognition in the areas of science, technology and engineering and they offer their well-regarded materials online for free for all to access.
ICT IITK
Established by the Indian Government, the Electronic and ICT Academy at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (ICT IITK) aims to provide industry-focused and hands-on learning to be able to provide and conduct research of the highest standard for leadership in technological innovation. Similarly, they allow anyone to access their online education materials completely free of charge, on all levels of accessibility for beginners as well as experts.
NPTEL
The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning was developed by seven Indian Institutes of Technology to create a humongous repertoire of free online learning materials in the subjects of civil engineering, computer science and engineering, electrical engineering, electronics and communication engineering and mechanical engineering. The NPTEL is the largest online educational resource in the world, with their Youtube channel being the most subscribed educational channel across the globe hosting more than 56000 hours of video content, completely free of charge.
Written by Sophie Cunningham; 2nd September 2020
